Carsten Greve

Public management reform in Denmark

Abstract This article discusses public management reform in Denmark. First, the institutional features of the Danish public sector are introduced. Danish ministries enjoy a considerable amount of autonomy that makes central co-ordinated public management reform challenging. The second part of the article outlines the contents of public management reform and provides an overview of the major reform initiatives of the last three governments. Denmarks reforms are characterized as a mixture of strategies for modernization and marketization, but with most emphasis on the former rather than the latter. Together with successive governments, the Danish Ministry of Finance has argued strongly for efficiency, economy and effectiveness as key values and they have been institutionalized in modernization efforts. Denmark should now be considered a country where NPM reforms have taken a firm hold.

Exploring Contracts as Reinvented Institutions in the Danish Public Sector

Contracts have been on the agenda in public sector reform in most OECD countries. In Denmark, contracts have been considered as one of the most important tools in reorganizing the public sector. The article examines the implementation of contract agencies in central government in Denmark during the 1990s. First, a review of contractual theory distinguishes between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ contracting. Second, recent developments in contracting in Denmark are examined, and three phases of contract agencies are identified. Contracts have been supported by other tools for reporting on performance like annual reports. Third, it is argued that Denmark has put co-operation and negotiation before more strict management and control. The Danish experience can be seen as an alternative to the principal-agent model. The article finishes by discussing the pros and cons of the Danish approach, and suggests that although the pragmatic approach has merits, it may lead to problems in the future concerning the credibility of the whole project.

Public Sector Reform in Denmark: Organizational Transformation and Evaluation

Public sector reform in Denmark has not been studied extensively, despite the countrys tireless reorganization efforts and track record of trying new ideas. This article thus seeks to fill a gap in the literature. It does this by examining the reorganization of the public sector in terms of the transformation of organizations, and by assessing how successive governments have evaluated the initiatives taken with the aim of knowing whether or not reorganization has worked. The discussion shows that reorganization has been incremental and pragmatic, and that governments have rarely evaluated their reorganization efforts in any systematic way. One of the primary reasons for this has been the desire of politicians and top civil servants to have political and administrative flexibility and freedom to seize on strategic opportunities, unconstrained by the findings of detailed evaluations.

On Public–Private Partnership Performance: A Contemporary Review

Private finance-based infrastructure public–private partnerships (P3s) are globally popular, including renewed interest in the United States, but their performance remains contested. This article explores the meaning of P3 and the notion of P3 success, and points to multiple interpretations of both. It proposes a new conceptual model of the P3 phenomenon, including five levels of meaning: project, delivery method, policy, governance tool, and cultural context. Numerous criteria exist on which the success of P3 might be judged. These are as oriented toward politics and governance as they are toward more traditional utilitarian policy goals concerned with project delivery, or value for money (VfM). Indeed, governments have dozens of different goals in mind. Given mixed international results to date for VfM, it is posited that to the extent that infrastructure P3s continue to show popularity, governments may stress P3 success more on the basis of political and governance strengths, than utilitarian characteristics.

Rethinking public-private partnerships : strategies for turbulent times

1. Introduction: Public-Private Partnerships in Turbulent Times (Graeme Hodge and Carsten Greve) 2. The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Public-Private Partnerships: A UK Perspective (Cierran Connoly and Anthony Wall) 3. What return for Risk?: The Price of Equity Capital in Public-Private Partnerships (Mark Hellowell and Veronica Vecchi) 4. Mind the Gap: Accountability and Value for Money in Public-Private Partnerships in Ireland (Eoin Reeves) 5. Enhancing Innovation in Public Organizations through Public-Private Partnerships: The Role of Public Managers (Tamyko Ysa, Marc Esteve and Francisco Longo) 6. Incorporating Non-Profit Sector Perspectives in the Study of Public-Private Partnerships (Anna Amirkhanynan and Sarah Pettitjohn) 7. A Foucault Perspective on Public-Private Partnership Mega Projects (Sophie Sturup) 8. The Public Management of Public-Private Partnerships: U.S. City-Level Structures for Brownfield Cleanup and Redevelopment (Rob Alexander) 9. Beyond the Contract: The Challenge of Evaluating the Performance(s) of Public-Private Partnerships (Stephen Jeffares, Helen Sullivan and Tony Bovaird) 10. A Theory Driven Approach to Public-Private Partnerships: The Dynamics of Complexity and Control (Koen Verhoest, Joris Voets and Kit van Gestel) 11. Conclusions: Rethinking Public-Private Partnerships (Carsten Greve and Graeme Hodge)

Comparative Analyses of Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships

ANTHONY E. BOARDMAN*, CARSTEN GREVE**, & GRAEME A. HODGE *Strategy and Business Economics, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2, **Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark, Faculty of Law, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Infrastructure public–private partnerships, also known as PPPs or P3s, continue to be a fascinating aspect of public policy around the globe. It has been more than two decades since John Major’s government in the UK adopted the idea of privately funding and delivering infrastructure services using long-term contracts. In fact, PPPs shifted from being simply an option for governments towards being a policy preference at the heart of the government’s consciousness (Smith 1999). Internationally, there is increased interest in PPPs. The UK presented a renewed “PF2” policy in late 2012 (HM Treasury 2012). The OECD (2012) issued guidelines for how governments should proceed with PPPs. ASEAN (2014) countries, which received assistance from the OECD, developed a new framework for PPPs. Many Asian countries are looking to the PPP policy option in their infrastructure policy. The new president of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, has launched an ambitious “Investment Plan for Europe” that will be presented in full in the next few years (European Commission 2014). This plan will entail encouraging private financing of public infrastructure programmes on a grand scale. In the USA, the Obama administration is considering different policy options, including a new tax proposal and administrative action that will attract private finance to help address the huge infrastructure investment challenges that the federal government faces (New York Times 2015). All of these initiatives will inject private finance into programmes and projects that governments want to be delivered.

Public–private partnership in developing and governing mega-projects

This comprehensive and accessible Handbook presents state-of-the-art research on the decision-making processes in the deliverance of mega-projects – large infrastructure projects for the transportation of people and/or goods.

Public-Private Partnerships: The Scandinavian Experience

This chapter examines the experiences that the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) have had with public-private partnerships (PPPs). Four areas in particular are examined: 1) the broader framework of public-private cooperation; 2) government policies toward PPPs; 3) an overview of the empirical PPP infrastructure projects; and 4) evaluation of the developments.

The Global Public–Private Partnership Industry

This chapter argues that there are signs of an emergent public-private partnership (PPP) industry, and that this PPP industry is closely tied to countries that have gained previous experience with the privatization of public enterprises and therefore were ready to make PPPs the next obvious move. The consequence of this development is that such a PPP industry is likely to flourish in those countries that pursue PPP policy. The remaining question that the chapter poses, but is not able to answer, relates to the relationship between business and government empirically in relation to PPP policy.

Public-private partnerships: a policy for all seasons?

The aim of the book is to investigate how PPP reforms function in comparison to the more traditional methods of providing public sector services and infrastructure and who typically experiences the successes and failures of these reforms.