Collaborative processes, in which citizen, government, and industry groups develop mutually-acceptable environmental policies, have become increasingly popular over the last two decades. In recognition of the importance of these processes, a substantial academic literature has arisen. The models that have developed within this literature have primarily employed the inductive approach; that is, they represent abstractions from large sets of observations collected by researchers and by participants in collaborative processes. The deductive approach - in which theories are constructed from fundamental axioms, before data are collected - has received little attention, despite its proven value. The purpose of this paper is to apply that approach to the modeling of collaborative negotiations, not to replace the current inductive models, but to provide an alternative perspective on the same topic.
The paper is organized into three sections. Section 2 develops a deductive model that can, it is argued, provide a useful framework within which collaborative processes may be analyzed. The third section employs that model to derive seven specific hypotheses about the functioning of those processes. Finally, Section 4 contrasts those hypotheses with data drawn from a survey of participants in an environmental planning process that was undertaken in British Columbia, Canada.
