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Innovative participitory institutions are emerging in the domain of natural resource management. In Colorado, there are more then forty local watershed initiatives involving citizen-based watershed groups. Often these groups are collections of existing groups that are interested in working on common problems through a collaborative, sometimes consensus-based approach. Water management entities may be able to use the strategies of adaptive management, cooperation, and collaboration in various trans-basin and transboundary arrangements, but limited agency and state resources may make effective and efficient planning and implementation problematic. This paper extends, modifies and suggests a particular framework for measuring democratic effectiveness of collaborative natural resource management regimes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequently controversy surrounds the titling of state ballot initiatives, as this title can set the tone of the campaign. While the titles of these initiatives have been the subject of many legal challenges in the state of Colorado, there is evidence that this issue is an important one in all states that practice direct democracy. In our study we ask if changing the titles of ballot initiatives change the level of support for the initiative? In other words, does ballot titling have a priming effects on citizen vote choice? To answer these questions we will conduct two experiments, presenting subjects with the text of the ballot initiative and two competing primes to examine how much the title changes support for the amendment. In the first we show that changing from supporting an undesirable to a desirable group prime in the title of the initiative increases support from voters. In the second experiment, we show that changing from a tax prime to an environmental policy prime in the title of the initiative costs support at the ballot box. This will begin the creation of a blueprint on how proponents can craft rhetoric to create a greater likelihood that their policies will pass. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]