Reviving and revising a termination model

Little research has been reported on the termination of public programs since a prolific period in the late 1970s. The rich conceptualizations from the literature remain largely untested due to research difficulties and to a well-articulated position that terminations (unlike other policy process stages) are the result of luck and consequently unproductive for scientific examination. An investigation of the seventy year long death struggle at the National Hansens Disease Center (formerly the National Leprosarium) verifies that patterns do exist and that deLeon's 1978 termination model, slightly updated, provides a good basis for continuing termination research.