Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Twin Challenges in Emerging Economies-The Need for a Paradigm Shift

摘要

PPPs as new organizational forms were, and still are, intended to respond to societal problems previously held as intractable. In all emerging countries, the originality of PPP raises new questions of governance: the problem of sharing economic, social, and political responsibility among various segments of society in the development of the country; and the adoption of new institutional forms to enhance the efficiency of government action. These issues are raised in both developed and emerging countries, but with more acuteness in the latter. In all cases, the central questions regarding the relation between the public and private sectors are that of what constitutes the public side of the partnership and marginalization of the public. This paper addresses the first challenge by tracing historical and contemporary developments on the need for PPPs; current public protests against PPP initiatives which are perceived as impositions to what the greater public want. Using a principal-agent (P-A) model as a lens, the paper provides a detail understanding of what constitutes the first 'P' (the public) in a PPP construct and shows how dominant approaches in PPP project arrangements have failed to embrace the real first 'P' (an inclusive approach) and have been dominated by the artificial first 'P' (an exclusive approach). Furthermore, the paper addresses the second challenge-management of stakeholders, by reviewing existing theory and practice positions on project stakeholder management through case studies and other sources and establishes the uniqueness of a PPP project environment which influences PPP multi-stakeholder management approaches. Finally, the paper provides an appropriate definition of the first 'P', and recommends the need for a paradigm shift from exclusion to inclusion in PPP arrangements; and also advocates for a paradigm shift in PPP stakeholder management and provides a conceptual model for appropriate stakeholder management in PPP projects.