The 2015 Hamline University School of Law Dispute Resolution Institute’s symposium brought together elected officials, public managers, scholars, and practitioners of dispute resolution, for dialogue, deliberation, and to brainstorm ideas for how Minnesota might use more innovative public engagement processes across local, regional, tribal, and state governance. How to build more meaningful public engagement in governance is an ongoing conversation in the United States and around the world. In this article, we address two broad areas that challenge Minnesota as it moves to deepen and improve public engagement practice: the state legal framework for collaborative governance and innovations in design for public engagement processes.
First, this article introduces collaborative governance. Next, we examine the legal framework for state and local collaborative governance, with a focus on administrative law. Third, we address principles of system design in public engagement as a form of collaborative governance. We then discuss performance results for public engagement in other U.S. states and communities. We share sample legislation, ordinances, and policies developed by a national working group of leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in participatory and democratic governance as examples of how Minnesota might strengthen the legal framework for public engagement and collaborative governance. We conclude that Minnesota has the opportunity to lead the way to innovation in public engagement.