Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

Cross-nationally, the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) (Barzelay, 2000; Ferlie, 1996; Hood, 1991) seems closely related to the growth of the nonprofit or third sector (see Salamon et al., 1999). The basic thesis of this paper is that the combination of growth and NPM amplified differentiation processes within the nonprofit sector, and that the dynamics of these processes vary across “nonprofit regime types.” Significantly, the growth has largely been an expansion of the economic dimension of nonprofit organizations as service providers, whereas other aspects like membership and volunteering have grown much less and have even stagnated in some instances. What is rarely understood is that the substantial expansion of the third sector may indeed call into question its long-term sustainability in its present form. Indeed, as this paper argues, the sector is becoming qualitatively different, and not only quantitatively larger. This paper wants to explore this thesis from a conceptual as well as methodological point of view by trying to “map” changes in the facets of the third sector in a cross-section of countries and over time to capture aspects of this quantitative-qualitative jump in nonprofit sector development.