Self-Organizing Policy Networks: Risk, Partner Selection and Cooperation in Estuaries

Policy actors seek network contacts to mitigate collective action problems endemic in all policy arenas. The Risk Hypothesis argues that actors seek contacts that maximize information transmission when cooperation involves low risks, but seek transitive, reciprocal relationships when risks of defection increase. We apply this risk hypothesis to 10 estuaries in the U.S, using survey data from 1999 and 2001. We find that collaborative risks seem relatively low in these newly-developing policy arenas. Organizations do not seek transitive relationships, but rather seek efficient information transmission contacts with popular central actors capable of coordinating policies. Furthermore, trust does not influence partner selection, but the trust of partners does affect an actor’s trust. We introduce the SIENA softwared that is capable of elaborating and testing additional hypotheses about social capital and the role of self-organizing networks in mitigating collective action problems. 1 Department of Political Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. Tel: 520-6213506; Fax: 520-621-5051; Email: [email protected]. 2 Department of Political Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2230. Tel: 850-644-7304; Fax: 850-644-1367; Email: [email protected].