Governing Public-Private Partnerships
A look at the dilemmas involved in using the private sector to deliver public infrastructure.
Description
Governments around the world are clamouring to engage the private sector in order to build infrastructure and deliver public services. However, the role of the state in managing new relationships with companies is often murky. Is the government a slow and wasteful bureaucracy that must be held at bay or is it a necessary authority? Assessing the appropriate role for governments within these partnerships and the factors that lead to their success or failure, Governing Public-Private Partnerships delves into two examples of collaborative projects in urban transportation: Vancouver’s Canada Line and the Sydney Airport Rail Link. Through personal interviews with CEOs, senior bureaucrats, and politicians, Joshua Newman compares the strategies pursued by an active and shrewd provincial government in British Columbia with the more hands-off state government in New South Wales, Australia. By supporting networks of players in the transportation game, actively seeking lessons from international experience, and innovating responses to novel policy problems, the public sector was able to lead the Canada Line partnership to operational success. In Sydney, however, the unwillingness of the state government to manage the partnership resulted in a sluggish Airport Link that, after sixteen years in operation, still has not met its original expectations. At a time of renewed interest in private involvement with public services, Governing Public-Private Partnerships provides an in-depth look into how the state can – and must – remain involved.
Reviews
“Governing Public-Private Partnerships offers a fresh perspective on the study of public-private partnerships by connecting this literature with broader scholarship on governance and public policy. It also provides a detailed analysis of two major infrastructure projects, supported by documentary analysis and elite interviews.” Daniel Henstra, University of Waterloo
"One of the book's implications is that policy makers who approach planning with a degree of humility are better able to resist purely political expediency while modifying expectations. On the other hand, executives who believe that they know everything necessary for P3 implementation often fail to foster "cooperation among [policy] network participants," thereby undercutting chances for success. Public officials at all levels should absorb what this book teaches. Highly recommended." CHOICE