Social Services and the State: The Public Appropriation of Private Charity

The so-called "charitable choice" policy of the Clinton and Bush administrations is another milestone in the transformation of a social services sector that was once decentralized, independent, often informal, and voluntary into a deliberate instrument of public policy. Issues associated with government purchase of care from private, voluntary agencies date back at least a century, although there were wide variations in such practices among states and localities. It was during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies that intentional federal appropriation of private social service capacity and skill began in earnest. The result is that private social services are now predominantly financed by government and by fees and charges, and contracts with large, for-profit firms are growing in importance. These developments have had important benefits. Public policy is more likely than private charity to address wealth-based inequities in service provision and to ensure better financed, more efficiently administered, and more uniformly available social services to a wide spectrum of beneficiaries. But there is a cost, too, in terms of diminished social capital represented by spontaneous private response to need. Voluntary social service agencies may find that sustaining the distinctive normative climates that ensure their uniqueness and selectivity is increasingly difficult as their involvement with government and with commercialized environments continues to increase.