The Governance of Partnerships

Partnerships between the state and private actors are increasingly used as local governance tools. Commonly those partnerships are employed for the provision of various types of public services such as transportation, energy, water treatment, social services or health care. While this type of co-operation between state and private actors is usually referred to in relation to for-profit businesses, there are also partnerships that involve civil society actors and non profit organisations. Some of these are new partnerships, others transformed versions of traditional bonds. At any rate, partnerships are very en vogue in the political debate. <br><br> They are popular not only in the sense that they are increasingly widespread, but also because they are an expression of a public discourse that highlights the benefits of co-operation. They are also one expression of the ongoing governance debate. Nevertheless, the number of such partnerships that has been systematically examined and evaluated is still relatively small. As a result, we do not know much about the dynamics and configurations of these governance instruments across the various European states. <br><br> The workshop is open for papers which aim to contribute to a better understanding of governance arrangements based on co-operation between state and private actors. The following topics are of special interest: <br> - Which challenges to democratic theory arise from partnerships in service provision? <br> - Which challenges do public and private partners, and their stakeholders, face within such partnerships? <br> - What are the conditions that make partnerships successful or likely to fail?