Hallow State

885 Words2 Pages

In Governing the Hallow State, Milward and Provan (2000) describe the hallow state is a metaphor for the increasing use of third parties to provide public services on behalf of the state. This paper is a summation of a decade of theoretical development and empirical findings from their research on the dimensions and impact of the hollow state in the domain of health and human service contracting. Past research focused on how effectual various types of mechanisms, structures, and incentives are at promoting the effectiveness of contracted services. The current aim is to bring together what the authors have learned and suggestions for new future research. Milward and Provan address the normative question, “what effects does government contracting …show more content…

Milward and Provan (2000) note there is little research on how to manage decentralized services effectively, and limited evidence that community coalitions build social capital, however, the role of governing the hallow state is nonetheless to manage hierarchies of networks. Their concern is that networks are less stable than one agency, thus they argue for a new approach to governing networks where the need for cooperation and coordination are high. They propose a principal-agency model for effective network …show more content…

While principal-agent theory may run counter to public sector service delivery in health and human services, Milward an Provan assert that “integration through public authorities that concentrate local funding in one set of hands and arrange for the provision of community-based services by a network of providers will be more effective than other alternatives” (p. 365). For example, stability promotes cooperation, and by giving the principal time to learn to govern the system, including the right to exclude other agencies, the probability of cooperation increases as it becomes less rational to behave in an opportunistic fashion. In addition, a key mechanism to effective jointly produced service was direct fiscal control by the state. Other factors of effective network governance include: principle agency should produce some services, not only govern; continuity of organizations in the network (infrequent bidding) ensures a long-term perspective; and resources are important when combined with these other elements (see pages 375 and 376 for a complete summary). It should be noted, however, that only leaving ways to monitor and negotiate contracts (authority) does not ensure accountability. In addition to these mechanisms and structures, what shouldn’t change in a network is the

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