Whether a function should be performed within or outside government is a very broad issue that relates to personal values and views concerning the relationship between individual and state, as well as acomplex set of managment issues. Without trying to answer those questions here, this article begins from the premise that a particular function has been judgment by the political process to be the responsibility of government. The article seeks to develop an approach for gorvernment managers to use when deciding whether to perform the function directly in-house or to performe the function indirectly throuth the use of a non-governmental organization. The first part of this article begins by delneating distiguishing characteristics of government, non-profit,and private organizations, and then assesses the degree to which those characteristics impede or facilitate the performance of public functions. The article then develops a framework and a method for making privatization decisions. The decision to privatize requires strategic thinking; this article provides an example of how a strategic framework might be applied by analyzing the issues that would be faced in privatizing a key element of New York City`s homeless program

Public Administration Review PAR

July/August 2001 Volume 61 Number 4