Between win-win and the manufacturing of consent: collaborative governance as a lightning rod in cannabis policy

Scholarship on collaborative governance emphasizes the importance of creating win-win situations as a way of generating policy innovation and effective problem-solving. However, the dynamics of collaboration are often more complicated than discovering mutual gains. An analysis of Cannabis legalization in the San Francisco Bay Area finds that “getting to yes” is often a subtle mixture of finding common ground and the manufacturing of consent. This means that some participants take the role of entrepreneurs in the collaborative process and push discursive dynamics towards a dominant perspective. Exploring the importance of power and politics in collaborative governance, the case illuminates how arena design, discourse, and coalition-building shape the scope and character of consensus formation