ABSTRACT
The confluence of several broad trends in government reform and welfare policy in the United States presents significant challenges for governance and accountability. These trends include privatization, welfare reform, and a heightened concern for accountability. Reform of the U.S. welfare system in the mid-1990s gave American states greater flexibility in providing welfare services to needy clients, by allowing many states to adopt social-services contracting as part of their expanded discretion.1 Contracts for welfare services typically involve extended networks across the public, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors. Of course, while the exact nature of welfare reform considered in this chapter may be unique to the United States, the trends of attention to government reform and heightened interest in accountability are not limited to the American context. Privatization as a government reform strategy has enjoyed support around the globe (Considine 2002; Entwistle and Martin 2005; Hodge and Greve 2005; Mulgan 1997; Young 2000).
