The Reversal
Why the burden of proof should not rest with the partnership, but with in-house delivery, which must hold its own against the market.
Ch. 2–4
The Core Argument
The state is not a better entrepreneur. It is a better principal.
A book about economic efficiency, client-side competence, and what Section 7 of Germany's Federal Budget Code actually demands of the public sector.
Three Parts of the Argument
Of eight parts in the book, in the order of the manuscript.
What Really Failed
A review of failed PPP projects, read against the grain: as failures of leadership, not evidence against the model.
Ch. 8–10The State as Platform
How client-side competence becomes the core capability of modern administration, from infrastructure to digital governance.
Ch. 11–14
The Book
Beyond PPP — Partnership as a Principle of Modern Statehood, from Infrastructure to AI
PPPs do not fail because of their economic logic, but because of a state culture that places in-house delivery above efficiency as a moral matter.
Baron and Wetzel show that Section 7(2) of Germany's Federal Budget Code (Bundeshaushaltsordnung, BHO) has long required exactly this reversal of the burden of proof. In-house delivery must justify itself once the market demonstrably delivers more efficiently — and that takes no new legislation, only an administration willing to take the existing statute seriously.
The book traces this reversal from classical infrastructure through the digitalisation of public administration to the state's first applications of artificial intelligence, always along the same question: who the state measures itself against when it builds.
Order now
Authors
Latest
Perspective
When In-House Delivery Costs More Than Partnership
Why a genuine value-for-money assessment must account for delay, opportunity, and quality costs.
Forthcoming
The Steering Unit for IT Procurement
Why procurement doesn't begin with the tender, but with the decision of what goes to market at all.
Forthcoming
How Much Should the State Build Itself?
A survey of what the state should produce in-house, and where self-delivery becomes an end in itself.
Forthcoming
Federal Agencies Between Mandate and Autonomy
What happens when the state commissions itself, and who actually holds the client role.