Private market PPP versus innovative public market procurement practices

Public contracts between contracting authorities and economic operators take place in a context in which initiative rests with a contracting authority publishing a contract notice defining content and scope of the contract. Many innovative contracting practices, described as public-private partnerships (PPP) take place using public contract proceedings. The operation of these proceedings does not fit neatly with the idea of partnership. This paper will address the following questions: What is partnership? How does partnership relate to PPP? What are the problems of public contract PPPs in relation to partnership? What drives actors on private markets? In what respects does the European public contracting directive not fit with relational contracting? How do public and private markets relate in urban development? Do public authorities in urban development prefer public or private contracts? The results of this paper suggests that in the case of urban development projects there is preference of contracting authorities for private contracts. The paper discusses whether this preference is a sign of government failure or of rational choice