The Undying Belief in Interactive Governance: Academic aspirations and practical reality of stakeholder involvement

Abstract

Within literature, normative assumptions are often made about the benefits of using interactive governance. One of which is stakeholder support for the implementation of policy, which is the primary sought after benefits in spatial planning. This dissertation adopts a more critical perspective to counteract the overly optimistic view often found in literature. The aim is to provide more balance and nuance to the use of interactive governance by moving past assumptions through the addition of new (quantitative) empirical evidence. However, providing more nuance to the use of interactive governance is not only done through quantitative empirical evidence, but also through qualitative explanations broadening our understanding of the concept. Providing a more nuanced view on interactive governance is done by answering three questions, namely how, if and why interactive governance results in stakeholder support for policy implementation. The how component is focused on how government-induced interactive governance (type) results in stakeholder support (purpose) within spatial planning (context) through the criteria equality, influence, reasonable debate and transparency. The if component is focused on providing empirical evidence for the assumption that interactive governance results in stakeholder support. The last component is focused on why interactive governance results in stakeholder support, namely why procedural or content satisfaction is decisive for stakeholder support and why the four criteria are important for reaching stakeholder support. Ultimately, all these components are aimed to get a better understanding to answer the following question: Is interactive governance the holy grail for creating stakeholder support in spatial planning or is it nothing more than a glorified concept?