Nonprofits for hire : the welfare state in the age of contracting
In recent years, government's primary response to the emergent problems of homelessness, hunger, child abuse, health care, and AIDS has been generated through nonprofit agencies funded by taxpayer money. As part of the widespread movement for privatization, these agencies represent revolutionary changes in the welfare state. Steven Smith and Michael Lipsky demonstrate that this massive shift in funds has benefits and drawbacks. Given the breadth of government funding of nonprofit agencies, this first study of the social, political, and organizational effects of this service strategy is an essential contribution to the current raging debates on the future of the welfare state.Reviews of this book: "An insightful analysis of the implications of an important, broad trend of the past thirty years in the social welfare policy of the United States and many other countries.[Smith and Lipsky] demonstrate that we do not have to read about other countries to find a comparative perspective that sheds light on the choices we face in our national health care debate." --Bradford H. Gray, Health Affairs "The most comprehensive account we have of the history, extent, nature, and meaning of delivering social services that are paid for by government and delivered through nonprofit organizations." --H. Brinton Milward, Public Administration Review "An interesting, absorbing, and important book." --William T. Gormley, Jr., American Political Science Review "An important contribution to welfare state scholarship." --Kirsten A. Gronbjerg, Contemporary Sociology
1 online resource (xii, 292 pages)
9780674043817, 9780674626393, 0674043812, 0674626397
654582400
Preface
Contents
Part I: The Turn to Nonprofits
1. Contracting for Services in the Welfare State
The Scope of Nonprofit Service Organizations
Issues for the Welfare State
2. Nonprofit Organizations and Community
Nonprofits as Manifestations of Community
Community and the Theory of Nonprofit Organizations
Toward a Political Explanation of Nonprofit Organizations
Three Types of Nonprofit Service Agencies
Part II: The Contracting Regime
Introduction to Part II
3. The Political Economy of Nonprofit Revenues Historical BackgroundImpact at the Service Delivery Level
The Reagan Era and a Changing Federal Role
4. Guardians of Community and Issues of Governance
Boards of Directors
Executive Directors
Boards, Executives, and Community
5. Service Providers for the Welfare State
Professionalization
Deprofessionalization and Government Funding
Volunteers and Organizational Capacity
The New Street-Level Bureaucrats
6. Services and Clients under Contracting
Imperatives of Public and Nonprofit Service Organizations Significance of Differences between Government and NonprofitsChanges in Practices under Contracting
7. Dilemmas of Management in Nonprofit Organizations
Understanding the Nonprofit Organization
Cash Flow
The Dance of Contract Renewal
The Question of Goal Succession
Part III: Implications for the Welfare State
8. The New Politics of the Contracting Regime
Individual Agencies in the Political Process
The Rise of Associations of Nonprofit Providers
The Corporatist Politics of the Contracting Regime
The Nonprofit Sector under Attack 9. Privatization in Human Services: A CritiqueWhy Does Government Contract with Nonprofit Agencies?
Perfmmance Assessment
The Irony of Privatization through Contracting
10. Government, Nonprofit Agencies, and the Welfare State
Issues of Citizenship
Contracting as Symbolic Politics
Toward a Balanced Approach to Communal Prouision
Tables
Notes
Index
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
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