Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting by Steven Smith, Michael Lipsky

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Synopsis

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.

Biography

Michael Lipsky is Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services.