Although research on the third sector has a long history, dating back to de Tocqueville and before that to studies of religious organisations, this research was reborn and recharged about fifteen years ago with a big push from the Program on Nonprofit Organizations (PONPO) at Yale University. I was present at and participated in this rebirth, but Í have not been actively working in this field for the last few years. So I feel like a mother who has not seen her child for a time. In revisiting the field, I would like to do three things: first, to recapitulate the research that was done 10-15 years ago when this area was still in its infancy; second, to compare it with the research that is being done today; and third, to suggest some topics that I think should be on the research agenda for the future. In concluding, I will speculate about some of the tensions and ambiguities in this field - tensions that may be destined to grow as the third sector grows. Issues concerning trust and distrust will resurface several times during the course of this discussion, as they seem be at the heart of the third sector's role in society.

This article elaborates a typology of organisational responses during the first decade of AIDS/HIV in a dozen Western European countries. Welfare mixes: that is, the division of task between all producers of welfare (both private and public), and the processes at work in these policies, are analysed. Three types are identified, presenting unexpected variants in respect to general typologies of Western welfare states. They underline the importance of non-profit actors and also argue that new forms of co-operation between those actors and public ones can lead to renewed management of the main social issues currently facing Western welfare states.

This article provides an overview of the emerging non-profit or voluntary sector in Latin America. Specifically, the article addresses the differences and communalities these non-profit organisations have across the region. It concludes by emphasising the huge variety of roles and functions performed by non-profit organisations within and across countries, and their often ambigious position between the private and public realms.

The 1995 Voluntas Symposium addressed the need to revisit the very economic theories that in the past two decades have contributed so much to the development of a concentrated research agenda on non-profit organisations. These theories, introduced by Burton Weisbrod, Henry Hansmann and others, continue to shape theoretical and conceptual efforts, not only in economics but also in sociological and political science approaches to the study of the non-profit sector. While the theoretical map of non-profit research has expanded beyond these early attempts and now includes several other major theories – most notably Lester Salamon's third-party government or interdependence theory – we suggest that it is time to take stock and re-examine some of the very basics from which these economic theories operate.

This article examines the trust hypothesis: the claim that asymmetric information can explain the existence of non-profit enterprise in certain markets. We argue that this hypothesis, in order to be viable, has to meet three challenges: ‘reputational ubiquity’, ‘incentive compatibility’ and ‘adulteration’. Drawing on modern agency theory, we conclude that the trust hypothesis stands on shaky ground. It can be sustained only under particular conditions that have been neither carefully described in theory nor subject to empirical assessment. The available evidence, patchy and inadequate as it is, seems to suggests that there are some ownership-related differences in aspects of organisational performance connected with asymmetric information. However, there is little evidence that this relates to trust per se or provides a rationale for the existence of non-profit ownership in these industries. We conclude with a plea for substantial research on consumer expectations and provider motivations.

The article presents a case study of the evolution of Israel's third sector. It uses quantitative data on the economic structure of the sector, as well as historical data on the changes it has undergone in the past 80 years or so. This period is subdivided into three eras, each characterised by a different dominant ideology within which third sector organisations develop. The analysis emphasises the interplay between the dominant ideology and the type of existing third sector organisations in each era, and their functions in society. The changes are illustrated using the examples of two key organisations (the Histadrut - Federation of Labour Unions, and the Jewish Agency) and two minority populations (the Charedi - Ultra-Orthodox and the Arab).

Studying the Israeli third sector within the context of its social history provides an opportunity to test some of the theories explaining the evolution and characteristics of that phenomenon. Thus, the article explores the implications and contribution of the Israeli case to international third sector theory.

Despite an abundance of survey data on charitable giving, researchers have not analysed these data asking the kinds of theoretical questions and employing the kinds of multivariate statistical techniques that would advance our understanding of the social processes leading to charitable behaviour. This article reports the authors’ first findings from their continuing efforts to develop and test such a multivariate causal model of the social, demographic, economic and motivational determinants of individual charitable giving. The first section outlines our identification theory of charitable giving. In the second section we discuss the data and how we operationalise our variables. The third section examines whether there is broad quantitative support for major tenets of the model developed if applied at the household level. In the fourth section we enquire about which factors are most strongly related to giving behaviour. We conclude with a discussion about the centrality of communities of participation for inducing charitable giving and about the practical implications for fundraising.

It is only in the last twenty years that there has appeared a field of civil organisations with a significant degree of autonomy from both state and church. But there are trends pointing to changes in the centralising, authoritarian tradition in government policies towards the non-profit sector in Brazil. This is occurring in parallel with the creation of conditions for change in this sector's negative image in public opinion. While, on the one hand, private social welfare organisations currently appear to public opinion in the worst possible light, being seen to be at the centre of the political crisis triggered by revelations of corruption, on the other hand there is a strong climate of moralisation and institutional democratisation which may favour them in the immediate future. More transparent policies for government collaboration and public control in this area appear to be a major outcome of this process. Questions of the democratisation (or deprivatisation) of the state, the need for institutional reform, and the constitution of a public sphere have been raised at the centre of debates around the role of these civil organisations in Brazil, now and for the future.

Ideology and altruism are central to understanding the non-profit charitable sector. This paper addresses three questions. Why do people make charitable gifts? Why do they usually give to non-profit organisations? When can non-profits run by committed ideologues compete with profitoriented entrepreneurs in the provision of services? The altruistic motives of individuals and the ideological commitments of entrepreneurs come together to support charitable organisations. The non-profit form provides a weak guarantee that gifts are not being syphoned off as profits. Furthermore, independent non-profits can often better reflect donors’ desires than public agencies constrained by majoritarian claims, and ideological entrepreneurs can use the non-profit form to reify their beliefs without being accountable to profit-seeking investors. A non-profit organisation can only survive, however, if it can attract money and customers. Sometimes its ideological character will facilitate both tasks. Non-ideological customers may, nevertheless, patronise an ideological non-profit if the entrepreneur's commitment helps to guarantee high quality.

This article describes the historic evolution of the third sector in Peru, from its emergence during the time the country was under Spanish colonial rule (from 1535 to 1821) until developments in the twentieth century. Using available information, an attempt is then made to appraise the recent and current scope of the topic and the dimensions of the institutions of the third sector. The legal status and tax regimes are discussed. Some organisational forms of survival and solidarity implemented by the grassroots communities are also described. These confer characteristics that may be different from those of other Latin American countries. Finally, relations between the third sector and the state are described.

Privatisation, decentralisation and devolution are three ideas in good currency that have permeated the debate on cultural policy over the past fifteen years. They are typically used as if there were a broad consensus as to their meanings and implications, but, in fact, these three words stand in for a much more complicated set of views and understandings of appropriate directions to take in cultural policy. This article considers the various motivations for each of these inter-related ideas and demonstrates that a precise and nuanced knowledge of policy intent is critical to understanding their implications for policy. Whatever words are used to describe a particular place's cultural policy, if the intent of that policy is concealed, intentionally or unintentionally, in a vocabulary whose implications are neither clearly spelled out nor fully appreciated, it will be impossible to know exactly what is to be done and how it is to be judged.

Burton Weisbrod's 1975 article, Toward a theory of the voluntary non-profit sector in a three-sector economy’, models non-profit organisations as suppliers of public goods which are undersupplied by government to heterogeneous populations. This article examines the implications, extensions and empirical tests of the Weisbrod theory. It also examines the theories of pure and impure altruism, the heterogeneity hypothesis, and the various ‘publicness’ indexes of non-profit output. The commonalities between the public good model and the trustworthiness model of non-profit organisations are also explored.

A significant number and wide range of Vietnamese non-profit and voluntary organisations have developed since Vietnam embarked on a programme of economic reform in late 1986. Philanthropy has begun to grow as well, albeit more slowly. The non-profit and voluntary sector and the state, each face important challenges as development of the sector accelerates. The state has sought both to encourage growth of non-profit, voluntary and philanthropic institutions, but also to control the pace and directions of that growth. Those dual aims are reflected in the state's regulation of the sector since the mid-1980s. This article provides detailed information on the development of the non-profit sector in Vietnam. It examines some common problems many of the new non-profits and voluntary organisations face and discusses the rapidly changing environment for philanthropy in Vietnam. The article also reviews the developing legal environment for non-profits and philanthropy, compares the situation in Vietnam to other countries in transition, and situates the functions of the non-profit sector in Vietnam in the context of the emerging scholarly literature on functions and models of the non-profit sector and government/non-profit relations.

There have been three distinct phases in the evolution of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Colombia. The first was dominated by foundations supported by the church and by private benefactors attending to society's welfare needs. In the second, associations created and sponsored by the state assisted in the efforts of small, neighbourhood communities, women's groups and labour unions. A final, recent, phase has been dominated by economic development and housing agencies, NGOs’ involvement in education centres and community development, and research centres concentrating on social issues. At the current time, corporations, associations and foundations are the legal structures through which NGOs are constituted. Beyond providing these legal structures, the 1991 Colombian Constitution recognises the role of NGOs and establishes that the state has the obligation to support them and to recognise them as legitimate actors in the policy process. Changes currently affecting NGOs in Colombia include their increasingly close links with the state, and difficulties arising from a relative lack of funds from sources promoting international co-operation.

This article examines and organises the economic literature dealing with non-profit institutions using the concept of ‘stakeholders’. In general, the literature identifies conflicts between various groups of stakeholders and then proceeds in two very different directions. The first is supportive of the non-profit sector, suggesting that non-profit organisations resolve those conflicts more effectively than other types of institutions. This provides a positive theory of the non-profit sector, explaining that non-profit institutions evolve when they are more effective in providing a particular good or service than other possible institutional arrangements. The second direction is more critical of the non-profit sector, suggesting that those conflicts will persist in non-profit institutions and will require some kind of resolution, including perhaps government intervention. Of course, a stakeholder approach to non-profit theory focuses on conflict and ignores some other views of the sector.

The social, cultural and political activities of non-profit organisations in Argentina have a long history. They existed prior to the creation of the nation state. With a very strong religious influence, they expanded throughout the nineteenth century. National state provision of collective goods only started to develop at the end of the nineteenth century as a result of what Salamon (1987) has referred to as ‘voluntary failure’.

The social, political and economic changes that have taken place in Argentina during the last decade had not only had an impact on non-profit organisations, but also on the traditional roles and responsibilities in the development of the state, the market and civil society. The political democratisation which started in 1983, along with the economic stability of the 1990s, were the two most relevant factors to affect non-profit organisations. The new social movements which had emerged during the previous decade (1976-1983) tended to disappear, leaving behind a wide array of organisations concerned with youth, women, human rights and neighbourhoods.

With a focus on poverty issues, several state agencies now prioritise new strategies and mechanisms which involve the participation of civil society in social policies. The extent to which these will develop, how large the resources devoted to these programmes will be, and what kinds of controls over NGOs the state will implement are some of the main topics which will demand close attention.

With the revolution of December 1989, citizens of Romania gained the right to form non-profit organisations for the first time in 40 years. Since then, Romania has begun to explore the frontiers of private initiative through the introduction of non-profit, non-governmental organisations as well as profit-making businesses. In this article we review the historical development and legal framework of Romania's emerging non-profit sector. We also provide the first empirical snapshot of that sector by applying the International Classification of Nonprofit Organizations (ICNPO) developed by Salamon and Anheier to 499 organisations identified in the Soros Catalogue of Nongovernmental Organizations in Romania: 1991-92. Finally, we speculate on the future development of the Romanian non-profit sector by considering alternative scenarios involving the relationships between indigenous non-profits, international NGOs and the Romanian government.