Abstract:

The concept of collaborative governance, originating in the West, has become an important component of China's social governance discourse system. However, the unequal status of diverse actors in practice hasalso raised doubts in the academic community about its local applicability. Previous studies have generallyattributed this issue to differences in social relations and governance contexts between Chinese and foreign countries, but there is a lack of reflection on the theory of collaborative governance itself. To control for situationaldifferences, this article directly takes the collaborative govemance practice in Scotland as a case study and findsthat even in the developed West, social entities still have limited equal status and decision-making power in a govemment led collaborative governance system. Through consensus driven, actor absorption and open empowerment, the Scottish Govemment has completed the integration of multiple actor governance forces. This mechanism designis based on factors such as endogenous motivation, mature ability, and inclusive environment, which in turn furtheract on these factors. Based on this theoretical reflection, the emphasis on equal status among actors in collaborativegovernance cannot exceed the basic collaborative principle of equal rights and responsibilities. Multiple actors canonly obtain positions and decision -making power that match their governance capabilities. As the main body that aggregates the expression of the will of the majority of the people and transfers power，the government cannot andshould not essentially withdraw from the center of the social governance system at this stage. Compared to contimuing to persist in conceptual debates, the theoretical and practical communities should shift their focus to the mechanism design and enabling factors that truly reflect the relationship between multiple actors. The construction, cultivation, and interaction between the two are the key to the collaborative governance.