Bringing Contracted Services Back in by Local Governments: An Exploratory Study

摘要

In recent decades, local governments have contracted out a variety of public services to private for-profit organizations in pursuit of greater efficiency and effectiveness. Yet, involving the private sector in public service delivery may not lead to desired outcomes and meet expectations of various stakeholders, such as service users, community members, and government officials. As a result, governments sometimes opt to internalize the delivery of public services previously contracted out to private providers. Based on interviews with local government officials from New Jersey, located in the Northeastern United States, this study explores which services have been returned to local governments, the rationales behind those decisions, their resulting advantages and disadvantages, and what lessons public officials have learned from those experiences. Major findings of the study that provide new insights into the practice of bringing contracted public services back in government have been summarized in six propositions.