The Local Public Goods Supply From Vision Of Public-private Partnerships

In recent years, with the appearance of the state council’s several opinions onencouraging and guiding the healthy development of private investment/non-government investment, the mechanism and various patterns of adoptingpublic-private partnerships for the supply of our local public goods and services havegradually realized legalization and institutionalization. Since the supply of local publicgoods and services have commonality and inevitability of consumption for localresidents, which is a matter of the basic rights of the survival and development ofcertain region’s societal community, the public character indicates that whether the mainbody of production and provision is a public sector or a private sector, it is notappropriate to pursue pure individual self-interests at the expense of public interests andpublic values. Born in the new public management movement, the public-privatepartnership was characterized by private investment, operating risk transferring to theprivate sector, revenue sharing and resource sharing, providing higher levels of publicgoods and services at a lower cost, etc. which were favored by all governments. Ourgovernment is facing the difficulties of experiencing economic structure adjustment,crucial reform and local debt expansion, In line with the purpose of reducing financialexpenditure, improving the level of public service, activating the private capital andencouraging citizens to participate in, to supply local public goods and services on thebasis of public-private partnerships becomes the local government’s optimal choice.First of all, this paper sorts out the nearly20years’ research literature at home andabroad about the public-private partnerships and local public goods, especiallyintroduces the domestic existing literature and research results, points out theshortcomings in the course of study at home, reviews the foreign study schools andhistory of public goods, and briefly introduces the relationship of the public-private partnerships abroad with all kinds of theories.Secondly, this paper introduces the four core concepts: cooperation, public-privatepartnerships, public goods and local public goods. According to the need for the thesistheoretical framework, cooperation can be divided into three types: languagecooperation, action cooperation and organization system cooperation; public-privatepartnerships can be divided into institutional public-private partnerships and mechanicalpublic-private partnerships, with the institutional public-private partnerships as the basisof this paper’s research framework. At the same time, in a longitudinal studyperspective, the connotation of public-private partnerships can be divided intotraditional public-private partnerships, economic and financial public privatepartnerships, management public-private partnerships and administrative reformpublic-private partnerships. Samuelson, Buchanan, Olson and Eleanor Oster’s conceptsof public goods and Tiebout’s concept of local public goods will be introduced. In thispaper, the concept of local public goods underscores the characteristics of regionality,publicity, commonality and the necessity of consumption.Thirdly, the theoretical foundation is about the principal-agent theory of newinstitutional economics, transaction cost theory, public choice theory and their relevanceto public-private partnerships. The privatization theory introduces the concept ofprivatization, the correlation of privatization with public-private partnerships, and thetypes and ways of privatization. New cooperation theory introduces its concept, basicidea and cooperation relationship between the state and the function differentiatedinterest groups. Deliberative democracy theory introduces the various basic conceptsand features of deliberative democracy, especially focusing on Ethan J. Leib’s idea ofdemocratic public sector. The government reform theory introduces the new publicmanagement theory, the new public service theory, the government integrity theory andour local service-oriented government theory.Fourthly, this paper presents a universal problem of local public goods supplyunder the public-private partnerships, namely the lack of public interest the governmentregulatory loopholes, cost control problems, the system problems and the expression ofinterest. The paper also makes a detailed analysis of the above problems’ causes: the public sector’s rational self-care and structuring, the relationship of transaction cost andprincipal-agent, market failure and the market risk, the perfection and improvementdegree of law norms, the judgment that whether the legislation of public-privatepartnerships is a public law or a private law, the combining relation of hard law and softlaw, the citizen participation and the lack of social capital.Fifthly, based on the above analysis of the problems and reasons, this paper putsforward the theoretical research framework: first, the public and the new concept ofpublic-private partnerships is the idea; second, the design of public sector and localgovernment system; third, the private enterprises’ ethics and corporate socialresponsibility under the public-private partnership; fourth, adding value to social capitaland the design architecture of public sector from the perspectives of citizens and socialorganizations.Finally, this paper adopts embedded-single-case study method to analyze thepublic-private partnerships mode for Taiwan high speed rail. The case first simplyintroduces Taiwan’s economic development and the nearly20years’ developmentcourse of the privatization, and then reviews the process of the Taiwan high speed railfrom argumentation, construction to operation. The key part is the analysis of theTaiwan high speed rail’s following the pattern matching principle in the process ofexploit and development, which is around the public sector, private sector, the multiplerelationship between citizens and social groups.