Social Service Privatization Research Paper

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As of 1996, an estimated 4.2 million civilian and military personnel and another 12.7 million workers were employed by the federal government under some sort of government contract, grant or federal mandate*. Furthermore, the federal government spent an approximate $28 billion annually on professional service contracts increasing 57% over the previous 5 years*. These numbers show how prevalent a fixture privatization has been a in American governance. Even today privatization continues to sweep the nation. From the federal to local, more and more government provided goods and services are being turned over to nonprofit and for profit organizations^. Despite its use, debates have ensued over the legitimacy of privatizing governmental processes …show more content…
It is a business arrangement between a government agency and a private organization. In this arrangement, the private organization agrees to deliver certain goods or services to the government agency or to the public in exchange for monetary compensation from the agency+. Contracting is used a tool for governments characterized by several key features. First, contracting involves the decision of a government to purchase a good or service from an outside source rather than produce it itself+. The second feature is that the business arrangement is equivalent to those found in the private sector+. The last feature distinguishes between purchase of service contracting, the delivery of governmental goods or services by third party providers to external recipients, and contracting for procurement of goods and services for use by government …show more content…
They claim the moving governmental functions into the private sector does come with several drawbacks. For instance, there is an absence of constitutional and administrative law norms in the private sector#. Federal administrative law seldom places any constraints on, except to formally constituted advisory committees and negotiated rulemaking committees, any private sector entities regardless of their association with government agencies^#. Critics claim privatization raises additional problems for accountability and popular sovereignty when outsourcing governmental activities#. It becomes difficult to hold private entities accountable when there is no clear chain of

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