Contract Consulting's Hidden Agenda
The Quest for Legitimacy in Government
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9213484 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Donald R Van Houten (corresponding author), Paul Goldman (Pitzer College) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 461-493 |
| Publication date | 1981-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Pacific Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0030-8919 • E-ISSN: 2330-0736 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1388778 |
| OpenAlex | W2800216376 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 15 |
In recent years state and local governments have relied increasingly on a silent partner—the contract consultant—who is neither accountable nor responsive to democratic control. After discussing the rise in government consulting, this article suggests that the hiring of consultants is frequently motivated by a hidden agenda: The quest for legitimacy. On the basis of brief case histories of contract consulting, we argue that legitimacy comes as much from the consultancy process as from the substance of an expert's final report or specific recommendations. Using three additional cases, we indicate that reliance on the consultancy process can give rise to the increased effectiveness of “counter-consultants” that insurgent organizations may use to combat corporate or governmental adversaries
Business · Control (management) · Democracy · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Management · Political science · Politics · Process (computing) · Public relations · State (computer science) · Law · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research
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| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2023 (41) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |