Public–Private Partnership in France: a Polymorphous and Unacknowledged Category of Public Policy

Abstract

Public–private partnership (PPP) is a very old reality in France, where, contrary to preconceived ideas, it has a central role in numerous sectors of public policy, notably at the local level. But the plasticity of the term ‘partnership’ has for a long time obscured the concept because of the diversity of forms which it may take. A PPP typology based on the profiles of actors concerned shows that partnership by itself does not create good governance, even if it provides a workable format for the contemporary exigencies of public policy. Good governance depends on the manner in which the actors make use of it and adapt it.