Public procurement and social inclusion in the network society

Abstract

The benefits of public procurement reforms, including open contracting, are claimed to be numerous. More recently, emphasis has shifted to the accrual benefits from reforms to marginalised communities. The discourse on social inclusion rests to some degree on the assumed potential of technological change and its democratising effects to disrupt a concentration of power to bring about greater social equality and development. To date, the application and development of theoretical models to explain and account for the actual outcomes of public procurement reform in the shape of open contracting has been lacking. This paper applies a conceptual framework developed from the theory of the network society to advance the framework's explanatory potential. By examining three cases in developing countries, the paper shows which antecedent conditions should be in place for reforms to return the expected benefits in terms of social inclusion.