Do public sector clients have to collaborate with contractors?

Recently in the Netherlands collaboration emerged as the proposed best way of working together. Clients and contractors are promoting collaboration, and they also prescribe collaboration in their future visions on the construction sector. We challenge this automatism by which collaboration is chosen as the most effective and efficient way. We did an extensive qualitative literature review in order to answer the research question: how can public clients and private contractors work together effective and efficient? At first a definition of collaboration is constructed, and the characteristics of the public sector in the Netherlands are discussed along three themes: power, resources, and procurement. The definition of collaboration and public sector construction project characteristics are then compared to show how collaboration is not suitable for all projects, and other forms of working together are discussed.