CHAPTER 2: Partnerships in Public Service Provision: The Case of Georgia Department of Transportation

We are living in a rapidly changing environment shaped by stringent economic restrictions. As government organizations, like all other organizations, change to adapt to the ever changing needs of their citizens, collaboration between public agencies, nonprofits, and the private sector are becoming an increasingly common approach for the provision of public services. In this chapter, we will focus on one such partnership between the state of Georgia’s Department of Transportation (GDOT) and its local governments.

This transformation in public service provision has prompted a growing body of literature about different dimensions of these partnerships, including their origins, prevalence, and performance (Agranoff & McGuire 2003; Ansell & Gash, 2007; Edelenbos & Klijn, 2006; Schrage, 1995). In most of this research, the main variable of interest is the level and magnitude of the collaborative activities themselves, rather than the perspectives and perceptions of collaborators. In addition, most of this work is focused on partnerships between private and public sector agencies, with collaborations between governmental partners receiving relatively little attention.