Democracy and private property: governance of a three-party public-private partnership

This paper contributes to the study of efficient governance of public– private partnerships (PPPs) through an inductive comparative case study of three riding schools in Sweden. Each school is a three-party PPP between a private firm, a democratic nonprofit association, and a municipality. The results indicate that efficient PPPs mixing private, collective, and communal interests can be established through an adaptive governance strategy. The private firm can shield the democratic association from market influence through adapting to market conditions; the municipality can create a governance strategy; and the democratic association can focus on providing riding services and fostering democratic governance.