Political Ideology and Social Services Contracting: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

Abstract

Theoretical perspectives on the ideological influences on government contracting predict that local governments controlled by right‐wing political parties will contract out a higher proportion of services than those controlled by left‐wing parties. However, empirical evidence on the impact of political ideology on contracting out remains inconclusive. To cast new light on this important issue, the authors apply a quasi‐experimental research design to contracting choices in children's social services in English local government. Because local governments in England are largely divided along partisan lines, it is possible to estimate ideological effects using a regression discontinuity design that captures changes in political control at 50 percent of the seats gained in local elections. The regression discontinuity estimates reveal that left‐wing controlled local governments exhibit a marked aversion to private sector involvement in service provision and a clear preference for in‐house service provision. These results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications.

Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local government: implications for autonomy in multi-level systems

“…Our findings echo those of others who have found a link between political control of councils and outsourcing (Dubin and Navarro 1988;Tavares and Camões 2010;Elinder and Jordahl 2013;Petersen, Houlberg, and Christensen 2015;Alonso and Andrews 2020). This research has found that centre-right councils are more likely to outsource services than centre-left authorities.…”

“…There is also evidence showing that political party control of councils is deterministic of sourcing decisions. Specifically, leftist councils appear to prefer in-house service provision and rightist councils outsourcing (Dubin and Navarro 1988;Tavares and Camões 2010;Elinder and Jordahl 2013;Petersen, Houlberg, and Christensen 2015;Alonso and Andrews 2020). These observations are consistent with partisan politics theory (Hibbs 1977(Hibbs , 1992, which predicts that the decisions taken by political parties reflect their supporters' interests and ideology.…”

“…Evidence for the influence of partisan politics on local government outsourcing decisions is mixed. Supportive of partisan theory, some studies have demonstrated that rightist-controlled councils are inclined to outsource services (Dubin and Navarro 1988;Tavares and Camões 2010;Elinder and Jordahl 2013;Schoute, Budding, and Gradus 2018) and leftist-controlled councils are inclined to retain in-house provision (Petersen, Houlberg, and Christensen 2015;Zafra-Gómez et al 2016;Alonso and Andrews 2020). Against theoretical predictions, however, other studies have returned no empirical support for the argument that ideology acts as a determinant of outsourcing (Alonso, Andrews, and Hodgkinson 2016;González-Gómez et al 2011).…”

An investigation into design and performance of supply chains for public procurement projects

“…In this sense, the LA can take on a prominent role as the project planner and manager, also orchestrating the whole supply chain, and still achieving optimal efficiencies and optimal scale of operations (Garrone and Marzano, 2015). This could be particularly apparent in Local Authorities which are run by political parties which are less aligned to neo-liberal ideologies (Alonso and Andrews, 2020). Little evidence, however is presented on how, at a local level, planning-based ideologies translate into procurement practices and supply chain management and organisation of public projects, in an era in which PPP and PFI approaches represent the dominant model.…”

For the People: Uncertainty, Elections, and Enduring Consequences

“…However, given the lack of internal capacity to manage this technology, election administration often favors networks of contractors to manage and troubleshoot election voting systems. Alonso and Andrews (2020) examine the role of political ideology in the contracting process. Research typically observes a partisan dimension to the make or buy decision, with local governments controlled by right‐wing political parties opting to contract out a higher proportion of services than those controlled by left‐wing parties.…”