This study applies a dynamic, multilevel, political organizational approach to analysis of variation and change in the provision of substance abuse services. The conceptual framework developed for this study integrates knowledge about service organizations and organizational aggregates or "sectors", with a systems view of service delivery (cf. Meyer & Scott, 1983; Scott & Meyer, 1987). As revealed in this study, U.S. drug policy has varied greatly over time and federal policy has contributed in a critical way to the emergence and transformation of substance abuse services. The multilevel view adopted here asserts that macro level conditions and events impinge on service sector arrangements, shape the organizational field in which services are delivered, and influence the performance of service organizations. More specifically, this study undertakes empirical analysis aimed at gauging the impact of shifts in the role of the federal government embodied in initiatives associated with the new federalism of the early eighties. Federal redirection significantly altered the ideological and structural context of substance abuse service delivery, advancing support for decentralization, privatization, and criminalization of care. Decentralization shifted the locus of authority for funding and administration of substance abuse services to the individual states. Consequently, data about the fifty states are examined in an effort to determine the extent of support for privatization and criminalization at the state level, and to identify features of state level political organization that influenced support for such policy outcomes. The notion of political organization is introduced to emphasize the importance of reflection not only on state strength, but the specific administrative or sectoral arrangements in place to carry out the work of government in this arena during the early to mid-eighties. Finally, state and organizational data are combined to assess the impact of this more differentiated policy context on the performance of a national sample of outpatient substance abuse service providers. Quantitative analyses demonstrate the sort of empirical work that may be undertaken within this conceptual framework. In general findings from analyses conducted at both the state and organizational level are supportive of this line of inquiry, and provide an indication of the value to come from continued research in this vein.Ph.D.Social Work and SociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103377/1/9319495.pdfDescription of 9319495.pdf : Restricted to UM users only
