Voluntary Agencies in the Welfare State

The rise of the welfare state threatens the autonomy and survival of nonprofit voluntary agencies as providers of social services. Or does it?

In this cross-national, empirical study of the workings of voluntary agencies, Ralph M. Kramer cuts through the conceptual confusion surrounding voluntarism and the boundaries between the public and private sectors. He draws on a survey of voluntary agencies helping disabled people in four welfare democracies (the United States, England, Israel, and...