Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) on Moulding State Structures: The Non-Ergodic Africa

Abstract

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) is a ubiquitous reality. In Africa, the wave of PPP has hit states in their infancy – still moulding following only 50 years since independence. The common perspective of PPP on the realms of scholarship is transactional (focused on the delivery-end of infrastructure). This paper presents a deeper and broader perspective, and it is a distillate of a case study on PPP as a policy phenomenon. It dissects and illuminates the interaction between the forces of state formation and the wave of PPP hitting the continent. The lens of this case study is Institutional Rational Choice (IRC). The tools are a variety, comprising textual analysis, hermeneutics and econometrics – in keeping with the essence of case study (explication of reality in-situ). The product is not the orthodox generalization (claiming ‘the way’). Instead, the explication offers a viewpoint (and trigger questions) on public space of Africa, while underpinning the non-ergodic character of that space.