The growing demand for welfare reform represented a devolution of authority from federal administration and enabled state governments to seek ways to improve efficiency and enhance coordination in managing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. This shift in authority from the federal government to the state and from the state to county administration empowered interagency collaboration and partnership by expanding organizational linkages between state agencies and local governments, nonprofit, and for-profit agencies for the shared goal of welfare reform.
Based on a theoretical framework from New Public Management and governance theories, this research is a small-n comparative case study that explores how the shift in authority emerged at state and local administrative levels, and how states have changed TANF implementation structure in two states: New York and Pennsylvania. It also examines whether the evolution in TANF administrative infrastructure changed the decision making capacity of organizations at state and local welfare jurisdictions and contributed to economic self-sufficiency of TANF clients. The practices of Albany County, New York and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania are examined to explore how county government has implemented TANF programs in partnership with other organizations.
This research conducts qualitative, quantitative, and network analysis using data from interviews, surveys, and archival records. It finds that state and county governments in New York and Pennsylvania have not substantially reinvented internal structures, but have expanded the collaboration and partnership with state or county sister agencies and nongovernmental organizations for improving efficiency. The experimentation of New York and Pennsylvania reveals that the involvement of other organizations made a substantial contribution to the decision making capacity of the organizations involved in TANF implementation. It did not yet contribute significantly to an increase in family income for TANF clients. The data also show that a larger proportion of TANF clients left welfare not for employment, but for other reasons. States sought to reduce welfare rolls without a thorough assessment of the impact of participation on the real lives of TANF clients and the reasons why clients left the program until the reauthorization in 2002. TANF clients still face difficult circumstances in becoming economically self-sufficient.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08202005-163249 |
| Date | 23 August 2005 |
| Creators | Chang, Hyun-Joo |
| Contributors | Phyllis D. Coontz, Susan B. Hansen, William N. Dunn, Louise K. Comfort |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08202005-163249/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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