Beyond the Contract: The Challenge of Evaluating the Performance(s) of Public-Private Partnerships

Public-Private Partnerships are firmly established in public governance in the UK and internationally. Driven by a desire, need or requirement to deliver public services through some degree of co-operation, PPPs can take a variety of forms and are manifest in different ways in different territories. Indeed, the enormous permutations of partnership purposes, structures and processes have led Brinkerhoff and Brinkerhoff (2011) to counsel caution in transferring specifics from one setting to another, given the limited generalized applicability of any set of conclusions about PPPs. Decisions about the shape and remit of PPPs are influenced as much by national history and tradition as they are by immediate circumstances, as Hodge and Greve (2005) indicate, contrasting the ‘corporatistlike’ PPPs of Germany and Sweden with the role of private finance in English infrastructure projects. The resultant breadth of activity contained under the label ‘PPP’ can be unhelpful, particularly for comparative analysis and research.