Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Implementation Perspective: A Guide for Managing Social Service Delivery Programs

Rate this book
After the “big” decisions are made in legislatures and executive offices, what is done by those who implement and operate social service programs will determine their success or failure. Yet, over and over again, the managers of public organization disregard or handle poorly the critical problems involved in starting and developing new programs or in modifying existing ones.

This book presents a new decision-making rationale-the implementation perspective-as the basic guide to social service program management. The cardinal principle is that the central focus of policy must be at the point of service delivery. Here is where management must redirect its attention. The demand is to concentrate on the hard, dirty, time-consuming work of building the local delivery capacity needed to provide better social services and to implement new program decisions over time.

The Implementation Perspective is a message for our times. Even those who would continue the nation's effort to meet its social obligations are finding that simply calling for big new programs and more spending is no longer satisfying. Moreover, Proposition 13, the balanced budget movement, inflation, and compelling demands for new funds in such areas as energy, now squeeze social programs. New directions may have to come, not from new funds, but from rethinking and redirection and, more to the point, the better management of existing programs.

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

3 people want to read

About the author

Walter E. Williams

30 books255 followers
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Walter E. Williams holds a B.A. in economics from California State University, Los Angeles, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from UCLA. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College and Doctor Honoris Causa en Ciencias Sociales from Universidad Francisco Marroquin, in Guatemala, where he is also Professor Honorario.

Dr. Williams has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, since 1980; from 1995 to 2001, he served as department chairman. He has also served on the faculties of Los Angeles City College, California State University Los Angeles, and Temple University in Philadelphia, and Grove City College, Grove City, Pa.

Dr. Williams is the author of over 150 publications which have appeared in scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Georgia Law Review, Journal of Labor Economics, Social Science Quarterly, and Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and popular publications such as Newsweek, Ideas on Liberty, National Review, Reader's Digest, Cato Journal, and Policy Review. He has authored six books: America: A Minority Viewpoint, The State Against Blacks, which was later made into the PBS documentary "Good Intentions," All It Takes Is Guts, South Africa's War Against Capitalism, which was later revised for South African publication, Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks, and More Liberty Means Less Government.

He has made scores of radio and television appearances which include "Nightline," "Firing Line," "Face the Nation," Milton Friedman's "Free To Choose," "Crossfire," "MacNeil/Lehrer," "Wall Street Week" and was a regular commentator for "Nightly Business Report." He is also occasional substitute host for the "Rush Limbaugh" show. In addition Dr. Williams writes a nationally syndicated weekly column that is carried by approximately 140 newspapers and several web sites.

Dr. Williams serves on several boards of directors: Grove City College, Reason Foundation and Hoover Institution. He serves on numerous advisory boards including: Cato Institute, Landmark Legal Foundation, Institute of Economic Affairs, and Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Williams has received numerous fellowships and awards including: Foundation for Economic Education Adam Smith Award, Hoover Institution National Fellow, Ford Foundation Fellow, Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation George Washington Medal of Honor, Veterans of Foreign Wars U.S. News Media Award, Adam Smith Award, California State University Distinguished Alumnus Award, George Mason University Faculty Member of the Year, and Alpha Kappa Psi Award.

Dr. Williams has participated in numerous debates, conferences and lectures in the United States and abroad. He has frequently given expert testimony before Congressional committees on public policy issues ranging from labor policy to taxation and spending. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, and the American Economic Association.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
0 (0%)
4 stars
0 (0%)
3 stars
0 (0%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
No one has reviewed this book yet.

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.