摘要: N onprofit organizations play a pivotal role in ongoing efforts to devolve federal government programs and transfer public responsibilities to the local level. In the era of welfare reform, the capacity of social service organizations to serve as the public safety net in the manner implied by devolution proponents has come under question. Partnership between governments and the nonprofit sector has undergone significant stress as it is transformed by welfare and related policy initiatives; the long-term effects of these changes on both partners are still imperfectly understood (Salamon, 1995; Smith, 1995).Devolution refers to the collective efforts to shift responsibility for federal programs down to the state and local level. The driving force behind these changes is the idea that social programs run by the federal government have been ineffective, unwieldy, and excessively expensive (Gold, 1996). Concomitant with efforts to downsize government has been the global push to incorporate new public management techniques in public and nonprofit organizations. Devolution is a piece of this larger reform movement. The new public management has been