Lead, link, or leverage? An integrative framework to assess different government roles in collaborative governance processes across political systems

Abstract Collaborative governance is an emerging phenomenon through which governments nowadays are seeking to address today's societal challenges. Oftentimes, this requires governments to assume different roles and responsibilities. To unpack this multidimensionality, this study establishes an integrative framework distinguishing between a leading, linking and leveraging role, and accounting for institutional and actor‐level aspects. We clarify the analytical leverage of this framework through a plausibility probe comparing two collaborative processes in Canada and the Netherlands, focused on national climate policy processes. Our findings underscore the value of our framework, shed light on how institutional and political drivers shape collaborative roles of governments across political systems, and their collaborative abilities in the face of politicization.