ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by reviewing the origins of the partnership perspective and its flaws in light of more recent research. Today, most scholars interested in the study of public policy implementation are aware of the important role that nonprofit organizations play in the delivery of human services. In February 1997, the city of San Francisco had a major and highly charged confrontation with Catholic Charities, the area's largest nonprofit provider of children's services. Over the past decade, new studies of nonprofit organizations and management have sought to redress some of the shortcomings of the early research. As public managers begin to reassess the terms of their interaction with nonprofit organizations, the rhetoric of partnership will only get in the way of critical and realistic appraisals of a complex relationship. The argument for protecting the independence of non-profits as a channel for the expression of a diversity of private values and visions is clear enough.
