Privatization and Employment in the Implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): A Multi-Level Analysis

摘要

A growing literature in public administration and governance examines the effect of organizational form and administrative ownership on policy outcomes and bureaucratic performance, namely the impact of privatization in public service provision. At its core, privatization involves the utilization of market forces to operate in formerly public-based industries and public services, and has in recent decades garnered attention among governments both internationally and in the United States as a tool of administrative governance. In the context of American policy implementation, privatization refers most often to the contracting-out of publicly funded administrative activities to private, for-profit and non-profit, third-party vendors. These private sector entities then perform the functions of traditional government agencies at the street-level, delivering public goods directly to citizens. In other words, private organizations perform the day-to-day administration of government-sponsored activities from refuse collection to prison maintenance and human support services.