Nonprofits for hire : the welfare state in the age of contracting / Steven Rathgeb Smith and Michael Lipsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Steven Rathgeb, 1951-

Contributor:

Lipsky, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social service--Contracting out--United States.

Social service.

Welfare state--United States.

Welfare state.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1993.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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

Contents:

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 Background; Impact at the Service Delivery Level

The Reagan Era and a Changing Federal Role4. 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 Nonprofits; Changes in Practices under Contracting

7. Dilemmas of Management in Nonprofit OrganizationsUnderstanding 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 Critique; Why Does Government Contract with Nonprofit Agencies?; Perfmmance Assessment

The Irony of Privatization through Contracting10. Government, Nonprofit Agencies, and the Welfare State; Issues of Citizenship; Contracting as Symbolic Politics; Toward a Balanced Approach to Communal Prouision; Tables; Notes; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-283) and index.

ISBN:

9780674043817

0674043812

OCLC:

923110310