A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

Chapter 3 – Collaboration, Partnerships and the Government Environment
structures such as ministerial councils have been identified previously, whilst informal
meetings and events can result in co-operative agreements or letters of intent. Cameron
(2001) identifies that IGR may vary along three dimensions, namely:
1. the degree of institutionalisation – which may be highly institutionalised and
formal or more ad hoc and informal;
2. the extent to which it is decision making in character – IGR may be simply sharing
of information between jurisdictions or involve more detailed action such as policy
adjustments including formal decision making; and
3. the degree of transparency – IGR may be practiced behind closed doors or
embedded in a process open to public scrutiny.
Agreements to co-operate may be formal or informal but should be entered into on a
voluntary basis for the mutual benefit of all who participate (Opeskin 2001). These formal
agreements may be:
1. commercial contracts between governments for leasing of premises or purchase of
goods;
2. written undertakings to provide resources;
3. inter-governmental agreements in which parties may adopt a particular policy
without legislation; or
4. agreements that parties use their best measures to implement a law whose term has
been agreed. (Opeskin 2001)
Cooperative and Coordinate Federalism
Intergovernmental relations within a federal system may be further classified as either
cooperative federalism or coordinate federalism. Cooperative federalism refers to the
process where functions are shared across levels of government whilst in coordinate
federalism the functions can be neatly allocated to just one level of government (Reeve et
al. 2000). More commonly in Australia, the cooperative federalism model reflects the
sharing of roles and responsibilities across the three levels of government. The complexity
of intergovernmental relations grows at the state-local because of the numbers involved.
In the United States, the fiscal relationship between the 50 states and more than 85,000
local government units, means that complexity is unavoidable (Liner 1989). Canada has a
similar level of complexity with over 4,500 municipalities and local governments within
10 provinces.
Devolution of Responsibilities
Since the 1970s, there has been a progressive trend within federated countries to devolve
responsibilities from the federal level to the states. In turn, the states have shifted
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