Public-private partnership? Shifting paradigms of economic governance in Ontario

In recent years, many governments have embraced new modes of economic governance that rely on public-private partnerships. These forms of governance effectively devolve authority and responsibility from the state, and instead rely on the policy networks found in civil society. This article argues that despite the general enthusiasm for such decentralized collaboration, there is significant variation in its meaning and practice. Comparing the public-private partnership strategies of two governments in Ontario in the 1990s, the article analyzes the origins and progress of two distinctive governance paradigms, looking for signs of economic innovation. The case studies demonstrate that each of the social democratic and neoliberal paradigms contains its own specific representational logic, organizational design, and policy purpose. The article underscores the analytical importance of linking the study of decentralized policy networks at the meso or local scale to macro-level political and economic factors that condition their operation and effects. It concludes with a discussion of the obstacles to institutional innovation in Ontario, and the conditions that facilitate successful public-private partnerships in economic governance.