The Governance of Partnerships in Local Government

Partnering is often claimed to represent a solution small local government organizations (SLGOs) can resort to in order to manage innovation. However, especially when private partners are involved, resources and specialized competencies need to be allocated on the management of the partnership in order to guarantee that it will deliver a public value. SLGOs often lack such resources and this can make it difficult for them to benefit from Public-Private Partnerships. In the chapter a solution to this problem will be suggested based on the concept of Integrated System of Local Government, that represents a form of strategic and long term partnership for the sharing of resources and specialized competences among SLGOs. More specifically, it will be argued that if the partnership with the private partners is established directly by the integrated system, on behalf of its members, this can guarantee a better governance of the partnership even when the public sector organizations involved are SLGOs.