Return to the NGO Cafe
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
USP 510/610 PAP 510
Spring 1996
Wednesday 6:40-9:20 Cramer 187
Charles Heying
Room 335 UPA
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00-5:00
725-8416 (Office) charlesh@upa.pdx.edu
Have you ever wondered why humans perform acts of compassion? Have you
considered the connection between social trust and civil society? In
Political Economy of Nonprofit Organizations, we examine theories of
altruism, trust, and the role of nonprofit organization in building
social capital. We consider the connection between wealth and social
responsibility, and between elite status and social reproduction. We
discover the broad scope of nonprofit activity in the economy, study
the costs and benefits of the tax-free status of nonprofits, and
examine the remarkable interdependence of government and nonprofit
organizations in the modern state. We discuss the implications of
"shadow governments" such as nonprofit development authorities that
possess pseudo-governmental powers, and the role of nonprofit interest
groups and think tanks in shaping public policy. Finally, we survey
the dramatic rise of non-governmental organizations in developing
countries and discuss the future role of nonprofit organizations in a
jobless economy.
METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
You will be assigned approximately 100-120 pages of readings per week.
Each session will begin with a short period of small group
deliberation. Each group will be assigned part of the readings for
which you will be asked to identify key words, phrases, and concepts.
This is a time to compare and summarize the notes you have taken on
the readings. After a short period of deliberation, each group will
report on their discussion and critique the readings.
Periodically during the term, you will be asked to report on the
progress of your research project and on your written observations of
ARNOVA listserv discussions (see assignments).
ASSIGNMENTS
Seminar Notes: Each week you will submit a brief note to me via email
(if you do not already have an email address, you should establish an
account immediately). These weekly notes will be used to suggest areas
of discussion for the seminar. The note should be approximately 1-2
pages and arrive by Tuesday evening. The first part of the seminar
note will be in the form of questions which the readings suggest to
you. You should write at least one question for each of the readings.
The second part of the seminar note will include your comments on the
ARNOVA-L listserv postings which you will be monitoring. Because your
first seminar note is due next Tuesday, you will need to subscribe to
ARNOVA-L within the coming week (see the "Listserv and Listserv
Commands" section for information on how to subscribe).
ARNOVA-L primarily serves members of the Association for Research on
Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). Its purpose is
to promote discussion and facilitate the exchange of information among
its academic and professional associates. ARNOVA-L has over 400
members world-wide, and of those, about 150 are graduate students.
Research Portfolio: Your second assignment (due April 17) will be to
identify library and electronic resources for future use on your
research project. I especially encourage you to seek out electronic
resources such as databases available on the Portals system and the
many internet web sites. Your portfolio should identify at least 8
sources. Each entry should be listed on a separate page and identify
in separate paragraphs and box style the Source, Location,
Availability, Abstract. Bring three copies of the portfolio to the
seminar: one for yourself, one to be graded, and one to be combined
with others to create a master portfolio which will be put on reserve.
Research Project: Your third assignment (due June 5) will be a
research project. I will be looking for a project of some substance,
most likely one involving some type of data collection and analysis.
The paper will include (1) a cover page, (2) an introduction, (3) a
review of relevant literature, (4) a statement of the question you are
examining and a discussion of how it relates to the literature you
have reviewed, (5) a methodology section, (6) your analysis, (7) your
conclusion, and (8) a bibliography. I suggest that you use a
parenthetical citations and that you consult a standard writing manual
for the appropriate technique. I encourage you to visit with me (in
person, phone, or email) about the project before you get too far
along.
EVALUATION
Research Portfolio: 20%
Research Project: 40%
Seminar notes and discussion participation: 40%
Required Text
Salamon, Lester M.Partners in Public Service: Government-Nonprofit
Relations in the Modern Welfare State. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1995.
Reserve Readings
Other than the required text and the material handed out in the first
session, all other readings have been placed on two-hour reserve at
the library.
SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Altruism, Trust, and Cooperation
Implicit in the literature on nonprofits is the assumption that
altruism is the nascent motive for charitable activity,
therefore, it is proper to begin our study by asking why humans
perform acts of compassion. In the readings for our first week,
Kristen Monroe (1994) reviews the burgeoning literature in
economics, biology, and psychology which attempts to reconcile
altruistic behavior with self interest norms. In a related
discussion, Douglas J. Den Uyl (1993) considers altruism in
light of the conflict of justice with charity.
While questions of altruism focus primarily on individual
behavior, the distinct but closely related phenomena of trust
and cooperation focus on the social and organizational
consequences of trusting behavior. To introduce you to this
fascinating literature, we examine three readings from an
edited volume by Diego Gambetta (1988).
I advise you to avoid the frustration that often attends a
sudden immersion into nuanced discussions of behavior, ethics
and social philosophy. Please to not expect to know and
understand all of what you read. My intention is to introduce
you to some of the more interesting theoretical questions which
underlie the charitable impulse. I believe that the relevance
of these questions will become apparent as the course
progresses.
Monroe, Kristen Renwick. "A Fat Lady in a Corset: Altruism and
Social Theory", American Journal of Political Science, Vol 38,
No. 4, November 1994, Pp. 861-93.
Den Uyl, Douglas J. "The Right to Welfare and the Virtue of
Charity", in Altruism, Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr.
and Jeffrey Paul, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1993, Pp.192-224
Gambetta, Diego. "Mafia: the Price of Distrust", in Trust:
Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, Diego Gambetta, ed.,
New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988, Pp. 158-75.
Hart, Keith. "Kinship, Contract, and Trust: the Economic
Organization of Migrants in an African Slum", in Trust: Making
and Breaking Cooperative Relations, Diego Gambetta, ed., New
York: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988, Pp. 176-93.
Gambetta, Diego. "Can We Trust Trust", in Trust: Making and
Breaking Cooperative Relations, Diego Gambetta, ed., New York:
Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988, Pp. 213-38.
Week 3: Civic Engagement, Social Capital and Institutional Performance
Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the first to observe the
critical role of civic associations in supporting democratic
institutions. Readings from his Democracy in America are de
rigueur for students of nonprofit organizations. In the
tradition of Tocqueville, Robert Putnam (1993) provides
compelling evidence for the relationship between traditions of
civic activity and progressive democratic institutions in his
comparative study of regional governments in Italy. In a
subsequent work, Putnam (1995) makes the controversial claim
that the once vibrant tradition of civic engagement in the U.S.
is now in decline and suggests that the outcome for democratic
governance and civil society are potentially ominous.
These readings engage us in thinking about the connection
between nonprofit organizations and political and economic
development. They also connect us with the readings of the
first week and suggest questions about the social and
institutional implications of altruism, trust and social
justice. Is it possible, for example, for a commercial republic
to survive on self-interest, or is it largely dependent on a
reserve of social trust fostered by institutions such as
family, civil government, and nonprofits? Does the creative
destruction of unfettered capitalism weaken the fabric of
trust, justice and charity on which it is so dependent?
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, Volume II, New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966, Pp. 106-24.
Putnam, Robert D. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in
Modern Italy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993,
Pp. 3-15, 83-120, 163-85.
Putnam, Robert D. "Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange
Disappearance of Social Capital in America", PS: Political
Science and Politics, Vol 28, December 1995, Pp. 664-683.
ARNOVA list serve discussion, selected comments (15 pages)
Charles Heying 11-13-95 (opening remarks)
Robert D. Putnam 11-14-95 (response)
Charles Heying 11-16-95 (reply)
Suggested: For anyone wishing to follow current developments in this
debate you might want to check out Andrew Greeley's homepage and in
particular his "work in progress" on religion and volunteering. The
following address will get you direct access to Greeley's article. A
full text version of Robert D. Putnam's "Bowling Alone", the article
in the Journal of Democracy which first stimulated the "decline of
social capital" discussion, and an interview with Putnam about his
work. is available at .
Week 4: Philanthropy and Social Surplus
In market societies, individual entrepreneurs and corporations are
permitted to retain a large measure of the economic benefits of the
social and technical innovations to which they have won exclusive
claim. From an individualist perspective, this wealth has no social
aspect and can be used with impunity. From a communal perspective,
this surplus is a social savings account entrusted to a civic elite to
invest in socially responsible activities. But what has been the
result of this social experiment with wealth accumulation? Have elites
simply become prolifagate consummers or have they invested their
surplus in community building activities? Has the social surplus
provided venture capital for social innovation or have elites used
philanthropy to solidify social caste and marginalize alternative
values? Is this a case of self-interest aligning with social good or
self-interest defining the social good? Can we possibly know? Does it
matter?
Carnegie, Andrew, "The Gospel of Wealth" in The
Responsibilities of Wealth, Dwight F. Burlingame, ed.,
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992,
Pp.1-31.
Riley, Jonathan "Philanthropy Under Capitalism", in The
Responsibilities of Wealth, Dwight F. Burlingame, ed.,
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992,
Pp. 66-93.
Knight, Louise W. "Jane Addams's Views on the Responsibilities
of Wealth" in The Responsibilities of Wealth, Dwight F.
Burlingame, ed., Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 1992, Pp. 118-137.
Week 5: Nonprofits, Civic Elites, and Social Reproduction
This week's readings form a necessary complement to the theoretical
musings on the reponsibilities of wealth. As we have discovered,
philanthropy is not easily separated from self-interest. Gifts grant
power to the giver. While nonprofit institutions in the arts,
education, sciences, and social services are the primary beneficiaries
of philanthropy, they are also the institutions which define culture,
establish professional domains, create class distinctions, and confer
status to wealthy contributors. Preferential access to these networks
of wealth and power infuse elite progeny with the cultural capital
necessary for the reproduction of elite status.
Sorting out the intricacies of these linkages and weighing the
democratic dilemma of elitism against the benefits of social
innovation are not well suited to a few short readings. Nevertheless,
a topic so central to the theme of this course must at least be given
a proper introduction. We begin that introduction with a reading from
Kathleen McCarthy's (1982) sympathetic discussion of noblesse oblige
in Progressive era Chicago. We follow this with Peter Dobkin Hall's
(1992) classic description of civil privatism in Boston. Each of these
are examples of what Peter Dobkin Hall describes as "Cultures of
Trusteeship". While McCarthy follows the transformation of trusteeship
in one location over time, Hall compares traditions of civic
philanthropy primarily across regions. Both, however, illustrate how
philanthropic institutions became vehicles for the social construction
of reality.
The historical essays by McCarthy and Hall are complimented by three
articles which more explicitly consider theories of social
reproduction. The first, is Jay McCleod's (1987) brief and accessible
overview of social reproduction theory. The second, Paul DiMaggio's
(1986) analysis of the institutional creation of high culture in
Nineteenth-Century Boston, meshes nicely with the Hall (1992) reading.
Finally, Pierre Bourdieu's (1986) often cited "Aristocracy of Culture"
introduces his theory of cultural capital.
McCarthy, Kathleen D. Noblesse Oblige, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1982, Pp. ix-xiii, 99-148
Hall, Peter Dobkin, Inventing the Nonprofit Sector: Essays on
Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations,
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, Pp. 170-206.
MacLeod, Just Ain't No Makin' It": Leveled Aspirations in a
Low-Income Neighborhood, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987, Pp.
9-22.
DiMaggio, Paul J. "Cultural Entrepreneurship in
Nineteenth-Century Boston", in Nonprofit Enterprise in the
Arts: Studies in Mission and Constraint, Paul J. DiMaggio, ed.,
New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, Pp. 41-61.
Bourdieu, Pierre "Aristocracy of Culture" in Distinction: A
Social Critique of Judgement and Taste, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1984, Pp. 11-17.
Week 6: Missing Values
Until relatively recently the economic importance of the nonprofit
sector was unrecognized and largely unreported. Scholars in the
nonprofit sector have attempted to correct this by developing new
measures and assessments of economic contributions and voluntary work.
Despite these efforts, traditional indicators of economic growth and
prosperity such as the GDP persist in ignoring the positive
contributions of non-market production to general welfare. The bias of
these measures reflects larger problems of value orientation in widely
accepted measures of progress.
In this weeks readings, we get an overview of the controversy through
articles which appeared in The Atlantic Monthy and the New York Times.
It was the Times' article which stimulated the discussion on the
ARNOVA list serve. This discussion was important, not only because it
gave economists a chance to mount a defense, but also because it
uncovered the sources for the final two readings, Waring's (1988)
caustic critique, If Women Counted, and Daly and Cobb's (1994) For the
Common Good. In the selections from the later, we get a better sense
of the structure the authors' arguments and in their Appendix, an
outline of what they call the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare.
Cobb, Clifford; Halstead, Ted; and Rowe, Jonathan. "If the GDP
is Up, Why is America Down?" The Atlantic Monthly, October
1995, Pp. 59-78.
Hershey, Robert D., Jr. "Statistic that Gets No Respect", New
York Times, Business Day, Tuesday, December 19, 1995, C1.
ARNOVA list serve discussion, selected comments (10 pages)
Charles Heying 12-20-95 (opening remarks)
F. Ellen Netting 12-20-95 (response)
Mike Krashinsky 12-21-95 (response)
Roland Kushner 12-21-95 (response)
Charles Heying 12-21-95 (reply)
Joy Hahn 12-21-95 (response)
Mike Krashinsky 12-22-95 (reply)
Putnam Barber 12-23-95 (response)
Waring, Marilyn. If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics, San
Francisco: Harper, 1988, Pp. 74-91.
Daly, Herman E.; Cobb; John B., Jr. For the Common Good: Redirecting
the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a
Sustainable Future, Second Edition, Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
Pp. 62-84, 138-158, 443-460.
Week 7: Economic Models of Nonprofit Organizations
The most theoretically elegant explanations for the existence of the
nonprofit sector have been developed by economists. In this week's
readings, Henry Hansmann (1987) provides an overview of the diverse
areas which economists have attempted to apply their theories. Burton
Weisbrod (1988) compares the institutional roles of all three sectors
and in a case study of long-term care facilites finds support for the
idea that where information about quality of service is difficult to
establish, nonprofits are the preferred insititutional form. Steinberg
and Gray (1993) revisit the seminal theories of Hansmann.
Hansmann, Henry "Economic Theories of Nonprofit Organizations"
in The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, Walter W. Powell,
ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. Pp. 27-42.
Weisbrod, Burton. The Nonprofit Economy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1988, Pp. 1-58, 142-159.
Steinberg, Richard and Gray, Bradford H. " 'The Role of
Nonprofit Enterprise' in 1993: Hansmann Revisited", Nonprofit
and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 4, Winter 1993,
Pp.297-316.
Week 8: Partners in Public Service: Government, Nonprofit Relations in
the Modern Welfare State
When former President Reagan argued that welfare functions of the
state should be returned to churches and private philanthropy and that
an upsurge in voluntary support would compensate for the reductions of
the welfare state, he demonstrated his naivet about the extent of
nonprofit and public sector inter-dependence. In this reading, Lester
Salamon (1995) examines the evidence and implications from his seminal
study at the Urban Institute on the potential impact of budget
reductions on the nonprofit sector. In doing so, he directs our
attention to the blurring of sectors between government and nonprofit
activity and the historic preference in the United States for private
provision of government services.
Salamon, Lester M. Partners in Public Service:
Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, Pp. 1-114
Week 9: Interest Groups, Think Tanks, and the Shaping of Public Policy
In the previous weeks readings, Lester Salamon described the service
delivery aspects of the government-nonprofit partnership, a concept he
calls "third party government". In this week's readings, we consider
the flip side of that relationship; the cooperative (some might say
collusive) interaction of government with political nonprofits in the
policy formation process. In our first reading, Loomis and Cigler
(1991) survey the growth of interest group activity, its connection to
the expansion of government services and the evolution of interest
group-government interaction from one of relatively closed "iron
triangles" to the seemingly more open and pluralistic "policy
communities". Next we read Hugh Heclo's (1977) widely cited "Issue
Networks and the Executive Establishment." Reflecting the policy
orientation of the American Enterprise Institute in 1977, Heclo
highlights the problems of executive leadership when policy
communities are dominated by technopols whose status as knowledgeable
insiders is enhanced more by increased issue complexity than by
solving governance problems. Finally, we consider the role of think
tanks in shaping ideological agendas.Peschek (1987) argues that the
rightward policy shift of the 1980's was not simply a reflection of
societal changes but was orchestrated by business dominated think
tanks who were attempting to forge a cohesive capitalist response to
the economic and political disruptions of the 1970's.
Loomis, Burdett A; Cigler, Allan J. "Introduction: The Changing
Nature of Interest Group Politics", in Interest Group Politics,
Third Edition, Allan J. Cigler and Burdett Loomis, eds.,
Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1991, Pp. 1-30.
Heclo, Hugh. "Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment",
in The New American Political System, Anthony King, ed.,
Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute Press, 1978, Pp.
87-124.
Peschek, Joseph G. Policy Planning Organizations: Elite Agendas
and America's Rightward Turn, Philadelphia: Temple University
Press 1987, Pp. 1-38, 60-67, 203-241.
Week 10: Taxes, Charity, and Trust
The tax exemption granted nonprofit institutions is a long-standing
public policy based, in part, on the assumption that nonprofits share
with the public sector some of its social responsibilities. As we have
seen in previous discussions, the concept of trust is central to this
expectation. In the April 10, 17 readings we considered the importance
of nonprofits in building social capital and developing socially
trusting behavior. In Week 6, we discovered that nonprofits, because
they eschew a profit motive, are expected to be the preferred
providers of services where organizational trust is a better indicator
of quality than market signals. But what are the implications for
society when nonprofits seem to violate this trust and violate the
expectation that they are not self-serving. For example, should
private nonprofit colleges, that generate large income flows from
major sports and research programs and whose primary beneficiaries are
the children of elites, be tax exempt institutions? In the District of
Columbia, where public schools struggle to maintain minimum quality
standards and the local government is in perennial default, should
venerable organizations like the National Geographic Society make no
contribution to the public coffers for schools, police and fire
protection, the courts, or transportation infrastructure? Should the
definition of nonprofit activity be so inclusive that it encompasses
the National Football League which in 1993, paid its commissioner $1.5
million per year, leased seven floors of a Park Avenue office complex,
and contributed less than 1% of its $35 million dollar budget on
charitable activities? In this weeks readings we explore these issues
within the broader context of theories which explain, define, support,
and question state and federal tax exemptions.
Gaul, Gilbert M.; Borowski, Neill A. "Warehouses of Wealth: The
Tax Free Economy", Reprint of a series published in The
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18-24, 1993.
Barras, Jonetta Rose. "The Tax Free Zone" Washington City
Paper, December 2, 1994.
Simon, John G. "The Tax Treatment of Nonprofit Organizations: A
Review of Federal and State Policies" in The Nonprofit Sector:
A Research Handbook, Walter W. Powell, ed. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1987. Pp. 67-98
Week 11: Shadow Governments: The Privatization of the Public Sphere
It is assumed that nonprofit organizations serve primarily charitable
or philanthropic purposes, but as we have seen in our discussion of
the civic roles of elite philanthropists, nonprofit organizations can
also serve private purposes. In the following readings, we will
examine various types of "shadow government" nonprofits which may
detract from the public good by moving what would normally be public
functions to the private sphere. One form of privatization is the
widespread use of semi-public authorities to carry out redevelopment
efforts. We examine case studies in Baltimore and New York and
consider contrasting assessments of the value of these organizational
structures. Another method of privatization is through homeowners
associations which exercise sufficient autonomy to maintain roads and
private security forces, restrict access, and impose strict
regulations on structural appearance and personal behavior. Finally,
we examine educational support foundations. As state legislation has
restricted local taxing authority in order to equalize funding and has
reduced budgets for state supported institutions, enterprising parents
and administrators have sought alternative sources of private funding
by creating fundraising foundations. Is this the wave of the future?
Are these uses of shadow governments simply flexible vehicles for
carrying out public functions or are they harbingers of the breakdown
of civic trust and a return to privatism? Do these limited governments
promote equal access and democratic principles in their governance
structures or do they discourage participation? Do they have an
outward civic orientation or do they segregate citizens? Referring to
our earlier readings on social capital, how does Putnam draw the
distinction between "good civic engagement" and "bad civic
engagement"? If shadow governments erect walls of privilege, do they
know what they are walling in and what they are walling out?
McKenzie, Evan. Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise
of Residential Private Government, New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1994, Pp. 1-28, 122-149.
Siegel, Fred. "Reclaiming our Public Spaces", in Metropolis:
Center and Symbol of our Times, edited by Philip Kasinitz, New
York: New York University Press, Pp. 369-394.
Stoker, Robert P. "Baltimore: The Self-Evaluating City? in The
Politics of Urban Development, Clarence N. Stone and Heywood T.
Sanders, eds. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1987,
Pp. 244-268.
Clippings Packet (5 pages)
Martin, Douglas. "New York Announces Plan to Revitalize Old
Square", New York Times 11-16-95
Lasdon, Doug and Halpern, Sue. "When Neighborhoods are
Privatized" New York Times Op-Ed 11-30-95.
Landauer, Robert. "Everyone Can Help Out: Local Education
Foundations Pool Resources", Oregonian, Opinion, 2-11-96.
Friends of the Branford P. Millar Library. Promotional
brochure, Millar Library Portland State University. (no date)
ARNOVA list serve discussion, selected comments (4 pages)
Michael Bryd 5-4-95 (opening remarks)
Kirsten Gronbjerg 5-6-95 (response)
Roger Lohman 5-10-95 (response)
Michael Byrd 5-24-95 (reply)
There are some terms in this selection which may have been defined in
other parts of the work from which is was taken. For your information,
BID is a Business Improvement District, CID is a common interest
development, and CC&R refers to covenants, conditions, and
restrictions written into deeds.
Week 12: Institution Building in Developing Countries
An underlying theme of our discussion of the political economy of
nonprofit organizations has been the discovery of the "blurring of
sectors" between market, state and nonprofit. The "blurring of
sectors" discovery was remarkable because it challenged traditional
descriptions of the nonprofit sector as "independent" and because it
contradicted the zero sum economic models of competition or "crowding
out" between state and nonprofit service providers. But the discovery
of interdependence in service provision is only part of the story. As
we discussed in our civil society readings, associationalism seems to
be connected to the building of state capacity. Nowhere is the nexus
of non-governmental activism and state building becoming more evident
than in the global associational revolution. The role of
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in strengthening democratic
political structures is being recognized both in weakly
institutionalized developing countries and in those middle European
countries being transformed from centralized states to commercial
republics. In this weeks readings, Lester Salamon (1995) provides the
overview while Fisher and Diaz-Albertini (1993) address the role of
NGO's in building civil institutions.
Salamon, Lester M. Partners in Public Service:
Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, Pp. 241-269.
Fisher, Julie. The Road From Rio: Sustainable Development and
the Non-governmental Movement in the Third World, Westport, CN:
Praeger, 1993. Pp. xi-xiv, 1-20, 163-183.
Diaz-Albertini, Javier. "Nonprofit Advocacy in Weakly
Institutionalized Political Systems: The Case of NGDOs in Lima,
Peru", Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 22, No.
4, Winter 1993, Pp.317-337.
Week 13: Future Trends - Dreams and Dilemmas
Jeremy Rifkin (1995) paints a bleak future for the global workforce,
but ends his analysis with an optimistic suggestion that the rapidly
growing third sector should be subsidized to absorb this reserve army
of displaced workers. Is Rifkin right, are nonprofit organizations the
social and economic shock absorbers of transforming economies? Will a
government in retreat and in debt be willing or able to provide a
social wage for those seeking opportunities in the nonprofit sector?
Lester Salamon (1995) presents a somewhat different scenario in his
work on the inter-dependence of the government and nonprofit sectors.
He suggests that the era of government cutbacks is forcing a
retrenchment of nonprofit sector? What will be the outcome of this
restructuring? Will hard-pressed nonprofits use volunteers to replace
professionals? Will they increasingly undertake commercial ventures to
supplement income? Does it matter?
Rifkin, Jeremy. The End of Work: The Decline of the Global
Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. New York: G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1995, Pp. 3-41, 221-74.
Salamon, Lester M. Partners in Public Service:
Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, Pp. 202-242
Reiner, Sara "The Downsizing of America: The Community: Trying
to Regroup," 4th in the series. New York Times News Service,
reprinted in the Oregonian, Wed. March 20, 1996, Pp. A12-A13.
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