Doing it all? Liberal notions of social procurement in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom

In the context of a challenged rules-based international order, Western states are embracing heterodox responses to reshore investment and mitigate risk. As one response, social procurement involves instrumentalizing public sector purchasing to simultaneously meet secondary objectives like economic inclusion and development. While not new, some forms of social procurement outwardly frustrate the priorities of market-based public purchasing (such as, buy local). How are middle liberal market economies managing the tensions between competitive and social procurement? This paper examines three such case studies in the national social procurement initiatives of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Applying a policy paradigm approach with primary document analysis, it observes first- and second-order change to accommodate social procurement. That said, the core ideas of competitive public procurement remain intact: each case favours free market approaches, open participation and downstream social value definition. This remains true despite renewed calls for buying local.