Collaborative Governance Regimes in Illiberal Democracies: A Comparative Case of Drug Harm Reduction Policy in Central-Eastern Europe

Abstract

Collaborative governance research and practice seem underdeveloped in Central-Eastern Europe compared to its Western counterpart. Recently, one can also observe a turn from liberal values in CEE. Taking states’ important role in shaping collaborative governance as a starting point, this paper includes a theoretical ambition of developing a classification of collaborative governance regimes. Furthermore, through qualitative analysis of drug harm reduction policies in Visegrád countries, it aims to contribute to the understanding of how illiberal governance affects collaborative governance. The results show that the impact of illiberalism on collaborative governance regimes does not appear uniformly across different policy areas.

Keywords

• collaborative governance
• illiberal democracy
• central-eastern europe (cee)
• drug harm reduction policy
• public service delivery.