Managing the hollow state 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.