Approach to the Concept of a New State Role: the Collaborative State

The primary purpose of this paper is to explain the transformations that public administrations are undergoing in contemporary democratic States. These transformations are paving the way to a new State model: the Collaborative State, which puts forward a new allocation of roles, tasks and responsibilities among state, market, and civil society, differing from that of the Welfare State.Faced with the complexity of social issues and the multiple actors involved, and in order to respond effectively to those problems, the Collaborative State assumes that it needs to engage and secure the active participation of society itself. In the Collaborative State, public administrations play a key leadership role, building collaboration relationships based on co-responsibility among public and private players.The construction of a Collaborative State is a significant challenge for the political and policy-making system as well as public administrations and society itself. Its difficulties should not be understated. In this process, key drivers include public administrations' institutional and managerial strengthening, as well as a parallel empowerment of a strong and autonomous civil society.