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- Title
Welfare Reform, Mississippi Style: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Search for Accountability.
- Authors
Breaux, David A.; Duncan, Christopher M.; Keller, C. Denise; Morris, John C.
- Abstract
Through an examination of the implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in the state of Mississippi, the authors explore the adequacy of traditional two-actor principal-agent theory. Using this as their lens, the authors suggest that the choices made by Mississippi in the area of welfare reform to privatize much of the work and to add several layers to the existing principal-agent relationship substantially reduced accountability and the effectiveness of the monitoring systems. They conclude that not only is traditional principal-agent theory an insufficient tool for understanding the complex interrelationship between democratic actors in this particular case, the decisions of the state of Mississippi to complicate the principal-actor relationship through privatization also undermined the reform effort itself in ways that may have general implications for other like-minded efforts in other policy areas. There are those who are undermining what the authors are trying to achieve ... —Bud Henry, Director of Economic Assistance, Mississippi Department of Human Services.
- Subjects
MISSISSIPPI; PUBLIC welfare laws; EDUCATIONAL accountability; PUBLIC administration education; ECONOMIC policy; PRIVATIZATION; ECONOMIC reform; JOB creation
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 2002, Vol 62, Issue 1, p92
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1540-6210.00158