Welfare Reform, Mississippi Style

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Search for Accountability

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6366188
AutoresDavid A Breaux (Mississippi State University), Christopher M Duncan (0000-0002-0645-4762, University of Dayton), C Denise Keller, John C Morris (0000-0001-9820-5618, Mississippi State University)
Ano2002
Volume62
Fascículo1
Páginas92-103
Data de publicação2002-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPublic Administration Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1540-6210.00158
OpenAlexW2030304277
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas32
Referências citadas12

Through an examination of the implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in the state of Mississippi, we explore the adequacy of traditional two‐actor principal‐agent theory. Using this as our lens, we 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. We 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 we are trying to achieve ...—Bud Henry, Director of Economic Assistance, Mississippi Department of Human Services

Accountability · Democracy · Economics · Political science · Principal (computer security · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare reform · Work (physics · Engineering · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies