ABSTRACT
Contracting for government services has become increasingly popular in the U.S., both across levels of government and policy arenas. Recent “devolution” of selected program responsibilities from the federal to state governments has accelerated this trend – especially for social services. This chapter offers a comparative case study of five social service contracts in the State of Kansas with a focus on how those contracts are designed to address issues of accountability. Kansas – a low-population state in the central U.S. – has been fairly aggressive in this area, and its experience is illustrative of the challenges facing governments that seek to use nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations to provide social services.
