Putting Faith in Partnership addresses a major conceptual change in American domestic policy, begun by Reagan and now fully realized by the Bush administration: the shift of responsibility for social services from the federal government to states and communities. In this groundbreaking study of a politically controversial topic, Steven Monsma sets aside overheated rhetoric in favor of a careful, critical analysis of the hard evidence on whether public-private partnerships really work. The book is based on in-depth studies of social service programs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Dallas. By examining collaborations between government offices and non-profit organizations, Monsma seeks to understand how these partnerships affect the balance between government's efforts to deal with our most urgent social problems and the right of individual citizens to control their own life choices. Putting Faith in Partnership settles many previously unanswered (and unanswerable) questions in one of the most divisive public policy debates of recent years: over the legitimacy of partnerships between government agencies and private, faith-based organizations for the provision of essential public social services.