Crafting Public-Private Partnerships that Champion What is Good for and Valued by the Public

Abstract This first chapter of Contracting for Public Value introduces and defines a key focus of the book, the public-private partnership (PPP)—a long-term arrangement between public and private sector entities for providing a public product or service—that is central to public services delivery throughout the world today. A core contribution of the book is to illuminate how the contractual arrangements and relationships that structure a PPP can be better designed and managed to produce more value for the public in social services delivery. This chapter discusses how public value is embedded in contractual provisions and relationships that form PPPs, and how the design, management, nurturing, and evolution of PPPs can contribute to the achievement of desired public outcomes. It describes the state of knowledge on contracting in PPPs and how the book extends the contributions of prior works. This chapter also presents an overview of the two high-profile case-study PPPs that are the focus of the detailed analyses presented in this book, along with a chapter-by-chapter description of how the book unfolds and generates practical lessons on how to make PPPs more sustainable and effective in achieving important public goals.