Partnership Communities

Public-private infrastructure partnerships draw financing from networked communities, made robust by democracy and electoral accountability.

Anthony Michael Bertelli (Author), Eleanor Florence Woodhouse (Author), Michele Castiglioni (Author), Paolo Belardinelli (Author)

9781108987431, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 November 2021

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.15 kg

We undertake the first quantitative and broadly comparative study of the structure and performance of partnership communities to our knowledge. Our study addresses several important research questions. How connected are the members of partnership communities? How can we understand the quality of the projects a community undertakes? How do political institutions shape their structure and performance? After defining partnership communities as networked communities of private firms which form the consortia that enter into long-term contractual arrangements with governments, we show how they are affected by government demand for partners. We then provide an overview of those factors predicting success in financing projects. Finally, we focus on the political economy of partnership communities. We develop and test theoretical predictions about how national institutions shape partnership communities and the quality of projects. We also investigate voters' preferences over alternative arrangements of infrastructure delivery before drawing out implications for research and practice.

1. Partnerships for infrastructure
2. Conceptualizing partnership communities
3. The quality of projects
4. Political institutions, project quality and community development
5. Voters, accountability, and the structure of partnerships
6. Implications of partnership communities for theory and practice.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Public administration [JPP], Politics & government [JP]