Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

How historically rooted power dynamics have shaped the evolution of civil society globally.

The civil society sector—made up of millions of nonprofit organizations, associations, charitable institutions, and the volunteers and resources they mobilize—has long been the invisible subcontinent on the landscape of contemporary society. For the past twenty years, however, scholars under the umbrella of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project have worked with statisticians to assemble the first comprehensive, empirical picture of the size, structure, financing, and role of this increasingly important part of modern life.

What accounts for the enormous cross-national variations in the size and contours of the civil society sector around the world? Drawing on the project’s data, Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Megan A. Haddock, and their colleagues raise serious questions about the ability of the field’s currently dominant preference and sentiment theories to account for these variations in civil society development. Instead, using statistical and comparative historical materials, the authors posit a novel social origins theory that roots the variations in civil society strength and composition in the relative power of different social groupings and institutions during the transition to modernity.

Drawing on the work of Barrington Moore, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and others, Explaining Civil Society Development provides insight into the nonprofit sector’s ability to thrive and perform its distinctive roles. Combining solid data and analytical clarity, this pioneering volume offers a critically needed lens for viewing the evolution of civil society and the nonprofit sector throughout the world.

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Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

How historically rooted power dynamics have shaped the evolution of civil society globally.

The civil society sector—made up of millions of nonprofit organizations, associations, charitable institutions, and the volunteers and resources they mobilize—has long been the invisible subcontinent on the landscape of contemporary society. For the past twenty years, however, scholars under the umbrella of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project have worked with statisticians to assemble the first comprehensive, empirical picture of the size, structure, financing, and role of this increasingly important part of modern life.

What accounts for the enormous cross-national variations in the size and contours of the civil society sector around the world? Drawing on the project’s data, Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Megan A. Haddock, and their colleagues raise serious questions about the ability of the field’s currently dominant preference and sentiment theories to account for these variations in civil society development. Instead, using statistical and comparative historical materials, the authors posit a novel social origins theory that roots the variations in civil society strength and composition in the relative power of different social groupings and institutions during the transition to modernity.

Drawing on the work of Barrington Moore, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and others, Explaining Civil Society Development provides insight into the nonprofit sector’s ability to thrive and perform its distinctive roles. Combining solid data and analytical clarity, this pioneering volume offers a critically needed lens for viewing the evolution of civil society and the nonprofit sector throughout the world.

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Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach

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Overview

How historically rooted power dynamics have shaped the evolution of civil society globally.

The civil society sector—made up of millions of nonprofit organizations, associations, charitable institutions, and the volunteers and resources they mobilize—has long been the invisible subcontinent on the landscape of contemporary society. For the past twenty years, however, scholars under the umbrella of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project have worked with statisticians to assemble the first comprehensive, empirical picture of the size, structure, financing, and role of this increasingly important part of modern life.

What accounts for the enormous cross-national variations in the size and contours of the civil society sector around the world? Drawing on the project’s data, Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Megan A. Haddock, and their colleagues raise serious questions about the ability of the field’s currently dominant preference and sentiment theories to account for these variations in civil society development. Instead, using statistical and comparative historical materials, the authors posit a novel social origins theory that roots the variations in civil society strength and composition in the relative power of different social groupings and institutions during the transition to modernity.

Drawing on the work of Barrington Moore, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and others, Explaining Civil Society Development provides insight into the nonprofit sector’s ability to thrive and perform its distinctive roles. Combining solid data and analytical clarity, this pioneering volume offers a critically needed lens for viewing the evolution of civil society and the nonprofit sector throughout the world.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421422992
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 09/15/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 344
File size: 17 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lester M. Salamon is a professor of public policy at Johns Hopkins University; director of the Center for Civil Society Studies, Institute for Health and Social Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies–Bologna Center; and senior research professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. S. Wojciech Sokolowski is a senior research associate at the Center for Civil Society Studies. He is the author of Civil Society and the Professions in Eastern Europe: Social Change and Organizational Innovation in Poland. Megan A. Haddock is the international research projects manager for the Center for Civil Society Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction, by Lester M. Salamon
Part One by Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and Megan A. Haddock
2. What Is to Be Explained?
3. Explaining Civil Society Development I
4. Explaining Civil Society Development II
5. Testing the Social Origins Theory
6. Conclusion and Implications
Part Two
7. Switzerland, by Bernd Helmig, Markus Gmur, Georg von Schnurbein, Bernard Degen, Michael Nollert, and Christoph Baerlocher
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. The Netherlands
11. Chile, by Ignacio Irarrazaval
12. Austria, by Michaela Neumayr, Ulrike Schneider, Michael Meyer, and Astrid Pennerstorfer
13. Denmark, by Thomas P. Boje, Bjarne Ibsen, Torben Fridberg, and Ulla Habermann
14. Russia, by Irina Mersianova and Olga Kononykhina
15. Mexico, by Jorge V. Villalobos, Lorena Cortes Vazquez, and Cynthia Martinez
16. Portugal, by Raquel Campos Franco
Appendix A
Appendix B
Bibliography
About the Authors
List of Contributors
Core Staff, Local Associates, Advisors, and Sponsors, 1991–2016
Index

What People are Saying About This

Rip Rapson

Stunninga remarkable, sweeping, and compelling body of work.

Femida Handy

In its macro-level focus and mixture of historical and empirical explanation, this exciting book offers a theoretical approach to the study of civil society that should be useful and appealing to scholars. Logically presented and well written, it will not only lead to future study but can also be used in foundational courses on the nonprofit sector.

Stanley N. Katz

Explaining Civil Society Development explores the central mystery of civil society: why is it that civil society takes on so many different forms in different countries? Why does Canadian civil society differ from that of Great Britain or the United States? Salamon and his co-researchers deftly apply the lessons of their 25 year comparative international research project to develop a “social origins” explanation, focusing on the embeddedness of civil society in national economies and social structures. This brief, attractive, and persuasive, book justifies their labors, and provides the best answer yet available.

Jacqueline Butcher

An entrancing volume, Explaining Civil Society presents useful theoretical and comparative insights that help us make sense of the power relationships that underlie the development of modern civil society around the globe.

Benjamin Gidron

Explaining Civil Society Development is a tremendous achievement and a fascinating development of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. This long-awaited book provides a new and solid theoretical base for our understanding of the Third Sector. Its emphasis on the power variable is timely and provocative given the recent attempts to silence civil society in many countries.

From the Publisher

In its macro-level focus and mixture of historical and empirical explanation, this exciting book offers a theoretical approach to the study of civil society that should be useful and appealing to scholars. Logically presented and well written, it will not only lead to future study but can also be used in foundational courses on the nonprofit sector.
—Femida Handy, coauthor of Philanthropy in India: Promise to Practice

Explaining Civil Society Development explores the central mystery of civil society: why is it that civil society takes on so many different forms in different countries? Why does Canadian civil society differ from that of Great Britain or the United States? Salamon and his co-researchers deftly apply the lessons of their 25 year comparative international research project to develop a “social origins” explanation, focusing on the embeddedness of civil society in national economies and social structures. This brief, attractive, and persuasive, book justifies their labors, and provides the best answer yet available.
—Stanley N. Katz, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Stunninga remarkable, sweeping, and compelling body of work.
—Rip Rapson, President, Kresge Foundation

Explaining Civil Society Development is a tremendous achievement and a fascinating development of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. This long-awaited book provides a new and solid theoretical base for our understanding of the Third Sector. Its emphasis on the power variable is timely and provocative given the recent attempts to silence civil society in many countries.
—Benjamin Gidron, Professor of Social Enterprise, University of the Negev

An entrancing volume, Explaining Civil Society presents useful theoretical and comparative insights that help us make sense of the power relationships that underlie the development of modern civil society around the globe.
—Jacqueline Butcher, Director, Center for Research and Civil Society Studies (CIESC) at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus, MEXICO

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