Advancing public policy to expose it: A preliminary framework for guerrilla coproduction

The expression of collaborative governance—specifically, coproduction—that emerged in response to Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States in 2024 challenges public administration scholars to expand our thinking around these concepts under the current administration. While existing research points to coproduction as a means to advance public policies and programs that citizens support, our article explores the current political landscape to show how coproduction can serve as a mechanism for citizens to advance policies that they find objectionable. We integrate theories of guerrilla government and coproduction to introduce the concept of guerrilla coproduction, which we define as the actions of citizens who work with the government to further public policies they oppose, with the primary objective of exposing the policies’ harmful effects. Our article’s central aims are to introduce a preliminary framework for guerrilla coproduction, discuss its implications, and lay a foundation for future research on this topic.