public-private partnership

public-private partnership, partnership between an agency of the government and the private sector in the delivery of goods or services to the public. Areas of public policy in which public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been implemented include a wide range of social services, public transportation, and environmental and waste-disposal services.

Although PPPs are an ancient phenomenon, they were not studied seriously by scholars until the late 1980s, when they began to be adopted in public administration and management in both developed and developing countries. PPPs have been a topic of political controversy and scholarly debate, especially regarding the advantages and disadvantages of PPPs in comparison with traditional government-run services and the nature of the partnerships they bring about.

In its most basic sense, a partnership is any business or institutional association within which joint activity takes place. A PPP exists from the moment one or more public organizations agree to act in concert with one or more private organizations. PPPs embrace public-sector partnerships with both businesses and organizations in civil society, including community organizations, voluntary organizations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

The partnership involved in a PPP is not equivalent to any simple contractual relation. Although such relations are sometimes labeled “partnerships” by the parties concerned, they do not by themselves constitute a genuine PPP, which implies a triadic relationship between the public authority, the private-sector partner, and members of the public concerned with the service. A PPP is—or should be—a mutually beneficial agreement directed toward serving a social purpose.

But it is also true that a multiplicity of agreements or contracts, more or less formal in nature and sometimes very informal, may give rise to a genuine partnership. The most-institutionalized forms of partnership may evolve into formalized permanent structures. In practice, PPPs tend to change over time, because it is in the nature of a partnership to develop and to adapt to the special circumstances of its particular field of operation. In the latter regard, political cultures and traditions have considerable impact.

It is possible to distinguish between substitutive and collaborative forms of partnership. Under substitutive partnership, the private partner replaces the public agency more or less completely, as has happened in the French system of outsourcing public services. Under collaborative partnership, typical of German organizations, each private partner has a specific function, which is determined by the particular profession with which the partner is associated.

PPPs have been widely adopted. Indeed, in many developed countries (e.g., the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the Netherlands), their use has been mandated through legislation. In France, for example, the PPP concept is of quite long standing, and, since the 1980s, PPPs have been implemented in almost all areas of public policy.

Concerning the international level and developing countries, partnerships between international donors and nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) have also increased in scope and significance. The World Bank has sought to cooperate with NGDOs as partners, and several reports and evaluations have called for improvements in World Bank procedures regarding partnerships with NGDOs.