Deliberation, Consensus, and Stakeholder Satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to contribute to development of collaborative governance theory by investigating whether and under what conditions a deliberative, consensus-oriented decision process among diverse stakeholders with conflicting interests can lead to decisions that are satisfactory to most of the stakeholders. Using computational simulation, we found that the benefits of collaborative governance are contingent on such conditions as the type of alternative that initiates the deliberation, the level of conflict among stakeholders and whether and how stakeholders modify their preferences over time. Based on these results, theoretical propositions for future theory building and empirical research are suggested.