If politics and choice have become messier, the process of providing public goods and services has become even more so.
As Kettl (1996, 2000), Salamon (1981, 2002), and
others have pointed out, government no longer directly creates public ‘‘value’’
. Instead, it relies on others as problems have grown complex and
government less trusted as a provider. At least two conceptual and actual approaches to
‘‘third-party governance’’ have been attempted over the last 20 years. The ‘‘New Public
Management’’ (NPM) and its market-based prescriptions is the first. NPM’s solution—to
marketize goods and services acquisition and ‘‘privatize’’ regulation—has been realized in some ‘‘commodity’’ services like trash collection, electrical generation,
and even penal services and education.