Public-private partnerships in Mexico: Challenges and opportunities at local level

A specific challenge related to infrastructure creation that is faced by several countries has to do with the lack of participation to an optimal level of subnational governments in the development of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects which, in turn, could offset the existing infrastructure limitations. In this article, we analyze the Mexican case, whose main feature is that, despite implementing the PPP scheme for almost 10 years and having technical assistance from international organizations to establish the required institutional framework (i.e. legal and technical dimensions), local governments have not been able to create the necessary competencies to carry out this type of project. In order to assess local governments on this subject, we conducted an analysis based on the model designed by the OECD in relation to the execution of PPP projects. A proposal to explain the lack of local government participation in PPP schemes, rests on the foundations of so-called “subnational authoritarianism.”