The Columbia Interstate Compact represented an attempt to establish a regional institutional structure for river basin development as an alternative to further development by the federal government. After 18 years of negotiation, and several attempts to ratify the Compact in the state legislature, Oregon and Washington had not ratified. The other five compacting states--Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming--all ratified the Compact. On the basis of data obtained, the following hypotheses were advanced which offer a reasonable explanation for failure of the Compact attempt. The Compact attempt became embroiled in the existing conflict regarding power generation and marketing (public vs. private) in Washington. Role perceptions of negotiators were sufficiently different from state to state and within states to make consensus very difficult. Provisions of the Compact were adverse to vested interests of certain federal agencies. (Author)