Social Partnership Program

The Social Partnership Program (French reformed: Programme d'parteneriat social) abbreviated SPP (PPS), is a form of public–private partnership in Gylias, used for infrastructure maintenance, decentralised planning, and broader direction of the private sector.

The standard form involves a partnership arrangement by which the financial cost of a project is equally divided, half covered by the government, and half by a consortium of wealthy Gylians who provide funding out of their own net worth. The program also encompasses the public sector's use of private partners to influence the economy, such as the NCIB's use of Agsa or the consolidation of heavy industry under government direction.

The SPP was created in the 1990s by the Mathilde Vieira government, and is credited with fostering a civic-minded and philanthropic culture among rich Gylians, by rewarding philanthropy with a distinguished reputation.

Background

The crises of the wretched decade, including the dérive au droite and the exposure of the neoliberal conspiracy, prompted a search for ways to strengthen and reaffirm the Gylian consensus. A broad agreement formed during the Filomena Pinheiro government that some reforms would be necessary to preserve Gylias' economic model and rejuvenate the economy beyond repairing the damage inflicted by the Aén Ďanez government.

The "plural coalition" led by Mathilde Vieira, elected in 1990, had a diverse ideological profile. In its efforts to rejuvenate the economy, it used both accepted methods — extensive public works programs, investing heavily in ICT — and sought inspiration from other areas, including Donatellism, market anarchism, and aristerokratia.

Preceded by the Decleyre Summit, where several high-profile wealthy Gylians committed themselves to the still-embryonic program, legislation establishing the SPP was drafted, approved by referendum, and passed in 1993. Some details of the program were moderated to obtain socialist and communist support, while it already enjoyed strong support from conservatives. One prominent supporter from the left was former public sector minister Julie Legrand, who used her influence in the Democratic Communist Party to secure its support for the program.

Following a gradual expansion in the 1990s and 2000s, the Toni Vallas government introduced reforms to slow its growth and tighten control and oversight mechanisms.

Overview

The SPP is administered by the Directorate of Social Partnership, an unaffiliated administrative agency that reports directly to Parliament and the Cabinet as a whole. The DSP handles coordination with the responsible advisory councils, local governments, and federal ministries.

For projects that will employ SPP, the government in question signs a contract with a consortium of individuals for the specific purpose of realising the project. In the case of most public works projects, the cost of building and maintenance is divided equally between the government and consortium. Contracts have well-defined durations, and cannot be renewed. If one expires but both sides wish to continue collaboration, they must sign a new contract.

Individuals participating in SPP projects can only contribute funding from their existing tangible assets. The money they contribute is a charitable donation, and thus tax-exempt. The only form of compensation allowed is listing of the individuals' names on signs referring to their participation in construction, or naming rights. In practice, the reward for participating in an SPP project is usually a good reputation, reflected in positive media coverage of the project and participation in Tax Day ceremonies.

SPP mechanisms are also used to formalise partnerships between administrative agencies and private companies selected to assist in executing its directions to the private sector. This aspect was influenced by Gaulette's role in the "iron triangle" of Alscia's economy. Notable examples include Agsa's work on behalf of the National Capital Investment Board, and the consolidation of heavy industries in government-directed companies like Miyashita Industries, with designations of market share determined by the Inspectorate of Competition.

Impact

The SPP has attained extensive use as a funding mechanism for Gylian infrastructural projects. The equal division of funding allows governments to reduce costs for public works projects, thus making it easier to initiate new projects, and reallocating saved money to other public services. The centralised coordination of the DSP and well-defined legal limits have been key to making most SPP projects proceed smoothly.

Together, the Decleyre Summit, SPP, and creation of Tax Day played a key role in ameliorating public attitudes towards enterprise and wealth, from the reflexive suspicion of the Golden Revolution to an acceptance of philanthropic and civic-minded uses of wealth. Mathilde made this clear in her announcement of the program, declaring: "If we are to have rich Gylians, let they be only Susan Shelleys and Mary Grants and Arlette Gauberts."

The Republic considers the SPP the "carrot", providing rich Gylians the opportunity to contribute to society and maintain a respected reputation, that complements the "stick" of severe regulation, enforcement, and penalties like social quarantine areas. Gylias Review similarly summarised the SPP as "giving the wealthy a chance to play the part of Susan Shelley or Arlette Gaubert on the condition they wear a leash held by the government."

The program also complemented Aishwarya Devi's policy of reducing consumption for sustainability purposes: by consolidating intensive industries such as manufacturing cars, ships, and planes, it helped achieve downscaling of production and consumption in these areas in a sustained manner, and transforming the industries by switching their focus to clean technology.

In popular culture, the impact of the SPP is reflected in the emergence of business chic, epitomised by Kaede Nakano's designs, Frauke Stark's pioneering of "business burlesque" pornography, and the popularisation of "wicked" caricatures of businesspeople, such as Marie-Agnès Delaunay's public persona, or the appearance of explicitly rich nénédettes whose wealth complements their cocksure cheekiness.

Participation in the SPP serves as a widespread way to identify wealth, and there is a strong expectation that a rich individual take part; not doing so attracts suspicion and damages their reputation by creating an appearance of greed and sociopathy.

The success of Gylias' SPP in encouraging philanthropy while keeping wealthy individuals under control attracted some notice in the Common Sphere. Shinobu Furukawa's government drew inspiration in creating its own policies to create a more pliant rich class in Akashi. Contemporary Delkoran governments have also used the SPP at times as a model for implementing similar carrot and stick approaches in public policy. Cybrian First Minister Astrid Marett commented that the most important lesson she learned from the SPP was the effectiveness of "behave or else" approaches to public policy.