Please join the Department of Political Science as we welcome, Dr. Edella Schlager, Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. This event is free and open to the public. Talk title and abstract are below.

Title: Polycentricity and "State" Reinforced Self Governance:The Case of the New York City Watersheds

Abstract: The New York City Watersheds governing arrangement is a polycentric system created and governed by a formal agreement made among more than 50 local governments, environmental organizations, and State and Federal actors for the protection and management of high-quality drinking water sources for New York City. In this presentation, I examine how New York State and US federal laws enabled the creation of the formal agreement. I also examine the design of the governing arrangement created by the formal agreement, how it supports cooperation and coordination, and manages conflict among actors who are suspicious of one another.

I use an emerging approach, state reinforced self-governance principles, to evaluate both the enabling laws and the governing arrangement. The principles include the distribution of authority and responsibility, fiscal capacity, the availability of accountability mechanisms, and adaptation capacity. I find that while the enabling laws and the design of the New York City Watersheds governing arrangement have facilitated the emergence of collaboration for providing high quality drinking water, there are gaps that pose challenges for the continued viability of the governing arrangement. Finally, I use the New City Watersheds case to draw general policy lessons for water governance.