Managing the hollow state <break/> Collaboration and contracting

This article presents what the authors have learned about managing networks of public, private and nonprofit service providers in the context of decentralized and devolved governmental regimes - what the authors have termed the hollow state. The characteristics of the hollow state are discussed along with two strategies for managing networks of organizations that jointly produce a public service - collaboration and contracting. The article revisits the authors' preliminary theory of network effectiveness, based on a four-city study of mental health in light of an evolutionary study conducted on one city's mental health system over four years.