The Basque Country is about to take an uncommon step in the way public policy is made, turning collaboration into the rule rather than the exception. 

The new collaborative governance framework approved by the Basque Government, together with its incorporation into the upcoming Transparency Law, is part of a broader shift. A shift that aims to change not so much what decisions are made, but how they are made.

For years, governing has largely meant deciding within institutions and communicating afterward. That model worked in simpler contexts, but it is clearly insufficient for today’s challenges. 

Issues such as the energy transition, social inequality, or technological transformation cannot be addressed by a single actor or through linear solutions. They require a combination of diverse capabilities, knowledge, and perspectives. 

They require collective intelligence.

From Institutional Decision-Making to Collective Intelligence

This is where collaborative governance comes in. It means designing, implementing, and evaluating public policies with the meaningful involvement of citizens, businesses, civil society, and academia. Not as an occasional consultation, but as a shared responsibility. 

The idea is simple in theory, but demanding in practice: sharing power to improve decisions.

In the Basque case, this approach is rooted in a long-standing tradition of community collaboration. From auzolan (collective community work) to a dense cooperative and associative fabric, collaborative governance is seen as a tool to deepen democracy, strengthen community, and align competitiveness with social well-being. It reflects a broader understanding of public action as more horizontal and shared.

What makes this moment particularly significant is that it is embedded in an amendment to the new Transparency Law, set to be approved on May 14, 2026, that changes the rules of the game. 

Transparency is no longer understood simply as access to information, but as the traceability of decision-making processes

Transparency is no longer understood simply as access to information, but as the traceability of decision-making processes. In other words, how decisions are made and with whom.

Embedding Collaboration into Law and Practice

The law introduces principles that give concrete meaning to this ambition: 

• proactive and understandable transparency

• inclusive participation

• shared responsibility across all stages of policymaking

• traceability of citizen input

• continuous evaluation. 

In practice, this means that public decisions must leave a visible trail, that contributions must be recorded and addressed, and that processes must be understandable and verifiable. 

Publishing information is no longer enough. Processes themselves must be opened, and their influence on outcomes must be real.

To ensure this does not remain a statement of intent, the law also introduces key organizational mechanisms. One of the most significant is the creation of a Collaborative Governance Project Management Unit. 

Its role will be to coordinate, design, and evaluate processes; provide methodological support; train participating actors; and ensure inclusive and effective participation. In short, it is an effort to bring structure to something that has often remained fragmented or symbolic.

Collaborative governance will also be implemented through concrete projects, with an annual planning process that must be approved by the Council of Government. This is an important shift: collaboration becomes part of the formal political agenda, with priorities, resources, and oversight.

The design of these processes is also clearly defined. It follows a sequence: 

First, identifying a shared challenge; then establishing the rules and framework for collaboration; moving into deliberation and co-design of solutions; and incorporating experimentation through pilot projects, culminating in joint evaluation to scale what works. 

Beyond individual projects, our goal is to build a collaborative culture in public action.

The Promise and the Challenges Ahead

If applied rigorously, this model could have far-reaching implications. It could reduce discretion in decision-making, improve policy quality by incorporating broader knowledge and perspectives, increase legitimacy by involving more actors, and ultimately strengthen trust between institutions and society.

It's important to state that artificial Intelligence is not yet part of this process. We recognize that new technologies, especially AI, must be part of the support architecture for collaborative governance processes, serving the common good within an ethical framework. 

But it will require time, technical capacity, sustained political commitment, and, above all, a willingness to accept that decision-making will become more open, more complex, and, at times, more conflictual. 

What the Basque Country is attempting is a major shift. Embedding collaboration into its institutional and legal architecture is an ambitious and relatively rare move. The design is solid and aligned with its own traditions. The real challenge, as so often, will be execution.

Governing with others makes decision-making more demanding. But also more robust, more shared, and ultimately more aligned with what is expected from a democracy

Governing with others makes decision-making more demanding. But also more robust, more shared, and ultimately more aligned with what is expected from a democracy that aspires to be more than merely representative.