Public–Private Partnerships: from Contested Concepts to Prevalent Practice

What is it about?

This article explores the current state of knowledge in relation to public–private partnerships (PPPs), taken to mean working arrangements based on a mutual commitment (over and above that implied in any contract) between a public sector organization with any organization outside of the public sector. Since it originally became fashionable over 25 years ago, the concept of PPPs has been strongly contested. However, PPPs are now to be found in the public domain in many countries around the world and their number has been increasing in recent years. This article looks at how this has happened, what have been the strengths and weaknesses of this development and what the future may hold for PPPs. It argues that we are still at an early stage of learning which types of PPP are appropriate for which tasks and at managing PPPs to increase public value. It will be essential to apply principles of good governance to the future development of PPPs — but it will also be necessary to ensure that these principles are genuinely appropriate to the context in which these PPPs are working.

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Why is it important?

It is important to recognize that PPPs are still young vehicles for the design and delivery of public value. We cannot yet judge how important they will become. For the moment, the task must be to experiment with them, as with other approaches to managing the public good — and to watch the results with care. So far, the evaluation of PPPs has largely been confined to issues of their efficiency, their cost relative to other available mechanisms of public policy and their corporate governance. In the future, it will also be essential to subject them to more stringent tests of how well they comply with criteria of public governance. At the same time, it will also be necessary to ensure that these criteria are genuinely appropriate to the context in which these PPPs are working

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