Clearing up the picture: overcoming common misperceptions

Moving towards the reconstruction of the juridical characteristics of public private partnership, the chapter distinguishes the concept from similar ones, clearing the path of common misperceptions. In particular, the tendency to assimilate public private partnership to the concepts of subsidiarity and delegation is criticized and substituted with the idea of co-management of public task as key to the juridical essence of public private partnership. Moreover, the authors affirm that public private partnership is not a means to solve market failures but rather an instrument of cooperation consistent with the theories of collaborative management of commons, which shows that the actual failure is related to the traditional dichotomies between public and private sectors in the performance of activities in the general interest. Lastly, public private partnership is distinguished from privatization and forms of cooperation with social enterprises and institutions of the so-called third sector, on the basis of the valorization of the mutual undertakings of both public and private actors in the partnership.