Where Do Citizens Place Blame for Service Delivery Failure? A Closer Look at Public-Private Partnerships

This study examines citizens’ attribution of blame for a failure of public-private partnerships (PPPs) using a survey experiment with a sample of more than 1500 Americans. We find that when service delivery fails, citizens tend to attribute less blame to public actors if the service is delivered by a PPP rather than solely by the government. Additionally, introducing citizen participation in service delivery design reduces the blame assigned to the government in direct service provision, but this effect does not extend to services provided via PPPs. These findings deepen our understanding of how emerging service delivery models affect citizens’ attitudes toward the government.