GOVERNMENT AS A STIGMA MODERATOR: THE CASE OF PALM BEACH COUNTY’S ADDICTION RECOVERY INDUSTRY

This dissertation investigates how government affects stigmatization processes. This line of inquiry is important for two reasons. First, existing models of stigmatization leave government out of stigma processes, or only mention government as a sanctioning body that comes in after stigma processes are complete. Organizational theory research therefore underplays the extent to which government action can influence its citizens.
Second, stigma research in public administration and government research is limited to examining how government can assist stigmatized groups, and not on how government affects stigma processes. This inadvertently gives the impression that government is not part of stigma processes. While this may be due to the bulk of stigma theory research being located in the management literature, it is nonetheless a significant omission. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how government can influence the proliferation of stigma to then find government’s location in the stigma process.