How does public participation affect perceptions of public–private partnerships? A citizens’ view on push, pull, and network approaches in PPPs

ABSTRACT

In this study, we analysed US-based public opinion data to determine the influence of particular modes of participation on citizen perceptions of public–private partnerships (PPP). Our summary finding is that information dissemination can improve community support of PPPs, but interactive engagement is more important, and likely required, for assuring citizens that projects reflect their interests – an issue vital to the long-term sustainability of PPPs. Counter to expectations, respondents indicated a preference for meetings with private partner representatives over those with their public sector counterparts; implying the value of citizen-direct relationships in holding third-party providers to account.

KEYWORDS:

• Public–private partnerships
• public participation
• contract management

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Koen Verhoest and Erik-Hans Klijn for the opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper at a 2016 symposium on Public-Private Partnerships at the University of Antwerp, as well as the attendees of that event, and the anonymous reviewers, for their excellent suggestions. The usual caveat applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In addition to the estimations in Table 7, we also calculated the discrete changes in probabilities associated with aggregated measures of informational and interactive approaches. These results also confirmed that information dissemination-based approaches had a greater effect on perceptions of community support and that interactive, network-based approaches had a greater effect on perceptions that projects had been aligned with local interests.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric J. Boyer

Eric J. Boyer is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. He serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation and he teaches graduate courses on public management, social entrepreneurship and nonprofit management, economic analysis, government contracting, and program evaluation.