Rebalancing Public Partnership

In the US, as in many other Western economies, federal and state government is working to become more involved with the nonprofit sector; a sector in which many of the organizations are singularly ill-prepared and strategically unaligned to fulfill the new role that is being asked of them. Based on his original research, John Brothers brings together leading thought leaders from the United States and around the world by exploring the prevailing attitudes and perceptions of the nonprofit sector towards government and vice versa and provides advice and direction to help both sides of the equation towards effective collaborative working. The main themes cover the nature and implications of regulatory reform on the sector and how non-government organizations should reengineer their practices. There are also chapters on some of the hot button areas of government contracting and political advocacy. The text includes best-practice examples, case studies as well as tools and templates from across the sectors. Both sides of this emerging partnership need fast-track education on each other’s capabilities, constraints and working practice. Dr Brothers’ contributors provide some very valuable perspectives and insights that should inform and direct this process.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) promise much and present an exciting policy option. Yet as this Handbook reveals there is still much debate about the meaning of partnership, and the degree to which potential advantages are in fact being delivered. In this timely Handbook, leading scholars from around the world explore the challenges presented by infrastructure PPPs, and contemplate what lies ahead as governments balance the need to provide innovative new infrastructure against the requirement for good public governance. This Handbook builds on a range of exciting theoretical lenses that span several disciplinary boundaries. It presents innovative insights and informed perspectives from an international base of empirical evidence. This essential Handbook will prove an invaluable reference work for academics, advanced post-graduate students and commentators of PPPs, as well as professionals, infrastructure regulators and government policy advisors.

The first book to evaluate public-private partnerships in a broad range of policy areas.

This insightful book critically examines the phenomenon of public private partnerships through a global, theoretical, lens. It considers the reasons for merging private entities and public administration, as well as the processes and consequences of doing so. The benefits for the community as well as the radical changes in the principles and modalities of administrative activity are theorized and discussed.

The development and maintenance of road networks has become a fundamental factor in a country's success. In the United States, the process of design, construction, financing and maintenance of individual roads has been organized in several different ways. The most preferential form of governance in the United States has become public private partnerships. Cases of attempts by different states governments to implement public private partnerships in the realm of surface transportation reveal major difficulties in governance, policy, as well as questions of ethical conduct. The government's perception of the private sector's capability of rescuing American highway system is detailed throughout the paper. The partnership between the government and the private sector instead of combining the strengths of each seems to combine the problems inherent in each. The origin of the private entity's association is illustrated as means of giving a background of the shift in the government's position in favor public private partnerships.

This note discusses what finance ministries can do to ensure that public-private partnerships (PPPs) are used wisely. By inviting private participation in infrastructure development and service provision, PPPs can help improve public services. Yet, strong governance institutions are needed to manage risks and avoid unexpected costs from PPPs. While in the short term, PPPs may appear cheaper than traditional public investment, over time they can turn out to be more expensive and undermine fiscal sustainability, particularly when governments ignore or are unaware of their deferred costs and associated fiscal risks. To use PPPs wisely governments should (1) develop and implement clear rules for their use; (2) identify, quantify, and disclose PPP risks and expected costs; and (3) reform budget and government accounting frameworks to capture all fiscal costs comprehensively.

"Over recent decades, a wide variety of studies and assessment reports has portrayed a stark picture of humanity's detrimental impacts on our planet's life and environmental health. Climate change is at the heart of many of these impacts. This cannot be allowed to continue, given the relentless human population growth and ever-expanding energy and resource consumption. We have but one planet, and its ecosystem services are essential to our survival. But the doomsday scenario can still be averted; humanity stands at a crossroads where it must take the route of sustainable behavior. Decisive action can still make a significant difference to climate change. This is humanity's greatest challenge. To have any chance of success, however, the time to act can be delayed no longer. Instead, it is right now: today is the future. This book documents a wealth of ways to adjust the trajectory of climate change. It outlines measures to drive massive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and to reflect part of the incoming energy from the Sun. For all measures, the book evaluates both advantages and disadvantages. Finally, it discusses the need to protect ourselves from impacts that have become inevitable already, and looks at how society may be driven to get the job done. In short, this book provides powerful facts and arguments to support informed choices"--