Question

What is/are the independent variable(s) in your study.

The relationship between government agencies and nonprofit organizations is the focus of
increasing attention within the public administration community. Practitioners recognize that the
organization of public services relies to a substantial degree upon what we have come to call

third-party government (Salamon, 1981). Nongovernmental actors not only deliver govern-
ment-funded services but also actively participate throughout the policy process. Often the

third-party is a nonprofit organization. In the last decade or so, researchers from a variety of
disciplines have examined this evolutionary development more closely (Kramer, 1981; Salamon
and Abramson, 1982; Salamon, 1987; Gronbjerg, 1987; Ostrander, Langton, and Van Til,
1987; Lipsky and Smith, 1989-90; Wolch, 1990; Provan and Milward, 1990). A 1989 National
Academy of Public
Administration report, Privatization: The Challenge to Public Management, urged that
public administrators and policymakers in general acknowledge the significant management
challenges posed by government programs that involve such "tools of government action" as
contracting out, loan guarantees, government sponsored enterprises, and vouchers (Salamon,
1989b).
Within this context of extensive sharing of responsibility between governmental and
nongovernmental actors for operating public programs, the government/nonprofit relationship is
widely acknowledged as a critical element. The shrinking capacity of public organizations,
increasing demand for services, and continuing trend toward decentralized program delivery
underscore its importance. At the same time, an understanding of the precise character of the
state/voluntary sector relationship and the degree of interdependence between public agencies
and nonprofit organizations requires additional empirical investigation.
Research findings reported here describe that relationship in terms of the dependence of
public agencies and nonprofit organizations on each other for resources and their resulting
interdependence.

The present study examined four key variables. The first was the general dependence of
nonprofit organizations on states (the importance of the resource obtained from the state, the
availability of the resource from alternative sources, and the ability to compel the provision of the
resource from the state). The second was the general dependence of the state on nonprofit
organizations (the importance of the resource obtained from the nonprofit organization, the
availability of the resource from alternative sources, and the ability to compel the provision of the
resource from the nonprofit organizations). These were derived from the work of Bacharach and

Lawler (1981). The third was dependence of the state on the non-profit organizations by service
sector (arts, health, developmental disabilities, and human services). The fourth was dependence
of nonprofit organizations on the state by service sector (arts, health, developmental disabilities,
and human services).

Answer 1