Players in the Public Policy Process Nonprofits as Social Capital and Agents

by Bryce, Herrington J.

• ISBN13: 9780230340282
• ISBN10: 0230340288
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Winner of the 2005 Charles Levine Prize for the Best Book in Comparative Policy and Administration This book focuses on the nonprofit organization as a social capital asset and agent in all phases of the public policy process--from influencing political parties, platforms, and choice of candidates to the formulation and implementation of public policy including the facilitation of transactions. This book demonstrates the universal utility of the principal-agent paradigm for analyzing nonprofits in foreign or domestic policy, sectarian or faith-based, scientific or social as well as the regulatory (not just participatory) powers of these organizations over market and nonmarket actions as a matter of public, collective policy. Placing the nonprofit in a principal-agent framework, the book emphasizes such topics as sources of conflict in public expectations and organizational performance, the moral hazard and benefits of organizational self-interest, tax exemption as compensation or a reservation price rather than just a subsidy, the role of social service organizations as managers of adverse social risks, and their inherent competitive advantage (even when faith-based) over firms as agents of choice for social service contracts from a strictly business perspective. It also deals with the role of nonprofits in governance such as over common pool resources, the moral hazard of policy, and the probability that the nonprofit could be an agent of distortions. This book goes beyond the economics of market failure and adds political, policy and administrative sciences, economic sociology, and the theory of contracts to encapsulate these organizations as agents and essential players in any open and democratic public policy process.

Author Biography

Herrington J. Bryce is Life of Virginia Professor of Business Administration and Affiliate of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, College of William and Mary. He is the author of Financial Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations: A Comprehensive Reference to Legal, Economic, Management, and Operations Rules and Guidelines for Nonprofits.

Table of Contents

The Significance of the Principal-Agent Paradigm * The Policy Significance of Nonprofit Organizations: Beyond the Limits of Failure * The Nonprofit as Social Asset and Agent of Public Policy * Nonprofits as Agents of Public Policy: a Paradigm of Principal and Agents * The Choice of Nonprofits as Agents of Public Policy * Housing and Community Development: A Case Study of an Agency Function * The Performance of Agents: Acute Care Hospitals and Community Benefits * Policy Formation, Nonprofit Advocacy, and the Principal-Agent Framework * Regulating the Finances of the Agent * The Nonprofit as a Self-Regulator * The Implications for Strategic Planning and Positioning