T. Brandsen

Co-production, the third sector and the delivery of public services

Abstract In recent years, public management research has paid increasing attention to the third sector, especially to its role in the provision of public services. Evidence of this is the rising number of publications on the topic, as well as a growing number of sessions and papers on the topic in academic conferences of the EGPA and IRSPM. However, much of the discussion on its role is motivated at least as much by ideology as by fact. We still lack a comprehensive empirical understanding of what happens when the third sector is drawn into public service provision. In this collection on Co-Production: The Third Sector and the Delivery of Public Services, we will try to enhance this understanding by presenting several new studies on the subject. We also introduce the concepts of co-production, co-management and co-governance as a conceptual framework that enables us to better understand such developments.

Griffins or chameleons? Hybridity as a permanent and inevitable characteristic of the third sector

Abstract The term “third sector” is increasingly used, but it is also increasingly difficult to define. It is characterized by fragmentation, fuzziness, and constant change. Furthermore, the bordering domains of community, market, and state are equally difficult to define and are becoming more blurred. One may have to accept that hybridity and change are permanent features of the organizations and arrangements involved. They could be classified not with reference to the structural characteristics of abstract domains but on the basis of how they cope with conditions of hybridity and change. The search for a valid empirical definition of the third sector, however modestly ambitious, must focus on the fringes of the domain where the “hard cases” can be found—the phenomena that are most difficult to identify and therefore most likely to reveal what is essential to the different domains.

Patterns of co-production in public services - Some concluding thoughts

Abstract Research on the roles of the third sector in the delivery of public services has so far been scattered. However, there is much to learn from drawing the different manifestations of third-sector involvement together, as each represents an element of the third sector within the public services, expressed in different ways. An interesting question for research and practice is how different combinations of such elements are and should be embedded, given the variations in national structures of service provision. The studies presented in this collection have offered a stepping-stone in progressing towards an answer. Here we offer some suggestions for a future research agenda. These concern, respectively, the relationships between different roles of the third sector, links with the analysis of welfare state reform and the function of co-production.

Co-management in public service networks

Abstract The third sector increasingly produces public services in collaboration with the state. This has not left the organizations in question unaffected. Recent research suggests that organizations involved in public service delivery are evolving towards forms of network production, in which the production process takes shape across a number of different organizations. As we will argue, organizations are faced with simultaneous pressures for differentiation and integration, which are alleviated (though not resolved) by internal changes in staffing, skills, structure and management style. Some of the problems of integrating public service networks are essentially resolved within organizations.

The Smothering Embrace : Competition in the Implementation of Social Policy

One element of recent welfare state reform has been the introduction of market coordination in the implementation of social policy. The authors of this article have conducted a comparative study of social security, health care and housing policy implementation in the Netherlands, focusing on the conditions necessary for an effective mechanism of competition. The most important condition is that clients should be able to switch between providers without difficulty. Evidence shows that the providers in these fields of social policy engage in activities that undermine the potential for future competition. While this is not uncommon in itself, the new markets in social policy appear to be particularly vulnerable to such activities. This can be explained on the basis of two variables: (1) the institutional characteristics of the policy fields as they existed before the introduction of market coordination, and (2) the characteristics of the products that providers distribute. The combination of path dependency and product characteristics strengthens efforts to reduce competition.