Public Procurement and the Welfare State

Public procurement, the purchasing of goods, works, and services by public bodies, is a crucial part of state activity. It ensures that vital services are available, infrastructure is constructed and maintained, and public bodies are supplied with the goods they need to operate. Public Procurement and the Welfare State offers fresh insight into this important field and advances a novel framework for exploring, understanding, and analysing this important area of state activity. Detailing the multi- faceted nature of public procurement, E.K. Sarter examines public procurement as a technical tool for safeguarding the availability of goods, works, and services, a social and political act, a policy tool, and a space for negotiation. This volume advances a novel approach to understanding and studying public procurement, one that centres decision- making processes and the power relations that underlie and shape public purchasing decisions and processes, and thereby their outcomes. Offering a timely and holistic framework for understanding public spending, this book is an essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, political science, public and social policy, welfare state studies, and public administration as well as those interested in economic justice and social innovation.