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Abstract

The extent to which state legislators believe that contracting with the private sector is proper for certain public functions is examined in this article. The authors argue that these legislative attitudes toward contracting are important to administrators expected to design service delivery systems. Results of a survey are presented to document preferences of legislators about contracting. The authors then illustrate that these preferences form a hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy are public functions for which contracting generally is perceived as proper or improper by state legislators. Theoretical arguments are then presented to help explain why these patterns in legislative attitudes occur.

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Attitudes of State Legislators toward Contracting for Public Services

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