Public-Private Partnerships

Chapter 2

PPPs—For and Against

§2.1 Introduction

Why has there been such a worldwide growth in interest in PPPs over the last few years? The public-sector reform movement known as ‘New Public Management’ provides the theoretical background for PPPs (§2.2), but in reality the main driver for growth is that PPPs avoid limitations on public-sector budgets (§2.3). However, the detailed debate on the merits and demerits of PPPs is a highly-complex one. A variety of arguments is used by governments for promoting PPP projects, but many of these are of a somewhat ex-post nature, i.e. they are used to justify a decision which has already been taken for budgetary reasons. These arguments will reappear throughout this book, but it is probably worth summarising ...