Governing By Contract

Governing by Contract

Is the public getting a good deal when the government contracts out the delivery of goods and services? Phillip Cooper attempts to get at the heart of this question by exploring what happens when public sector organizations—at the federal, state and local levels—form working relationships with other agencies, communities, non-profit organizations and private firms through contracts. Rather than focus on the ongoing debate over privatization, the book emphasizes the tools managers need to form, operate, terminate or transform these contracts amidst a complex web of intergovernmental relations. Cooper frames the issues of public contract management by showing how managers are caught in between governance by authority and government by contract. By looking at cases ranging from the management of Baltimore schools to the contracting of senior citizen programs in Kansas, he offers practical information to students and practitioners and a theoretical context for their work. At every turn, the author avoids bogging readers down in technical jargon. Instead the book sheds light on a crucial part of any public manager′s job with lively case material and no-nonsense guidance for making the most of taxpayer dollars.

The Government Contracts Reference Book

Government Contract Law

The rapid developments in government contract law of the late 1990s and early 2000s have necessitated a new edition of this casebook, which offers the first contemporary one-volume casebook for a Government Contracts course. All chapters have been updated with new cases and notes, and two entirely new chapters have been added to ensure that the book's coverage is complete. The casebook makes government contract law accessible to readers of all backgrounds, from second-year law students who have taken only basic contract law, to commercial lawyers and non-lawyer government contract professionals seeking a broad, legally-focused introduction to the field. While all the traditional areas of interest receive coverage, the book emphasizes cases from increasingly important areas such as high technology, health care, commercial products, and state needs. Tiefer and Shook bring academic and practitioner experience and expertise to their treatment of government contract law. A teacher's manual is available.