El Tercer Sector de Acción Social en las Comunidades Autónomas: ¿modelos de Tercer Sector o singularidades territoriales?

Abstract

The Third Sector of Social Action (TSSA) has gone from occupying a residual institutional position to one of greater centrality within the mixed welfare system in Spain. Inthe current context of decentralisation of the TSSA, which runs parallel and in a subsidiarymanner to that of the Spanish “State of the Autonomies”, there are few comparative studieson the regional dimension of the TSSA. The aim of this text is to analyse the institutional andsocio-economic fit of the TSSA in different Spanish regions. This article begins by referringto the recent evolution of the Spanish Third Sector and to its main characteristics, followedby a comparative international and regional analysis of the different European Third Sector“models” and the main trends of change. Finally, it explores the presence of differential economic-institutional, socio-historical and social capital factors by analysing whether there is ageneral model for the development of the TSSA in Spain versus autonomous regional models.The empirical basis of this study is the carrying out of 48 in-depth interviews and 14 focusgroups in seven Spanish Autonomous Communities among experts, managers and representativesof Third Sector organisations in the framework of the PECOTSAS project. The PECOTSASproject (Comparative Perspective on the Third Sector of Social Action) has been carried out between2018 and 2021 and is funded by the 2017 Call for RDI Excellence Projects of the SpanishMinistry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (RFA: CSO2017-85486-P). We concludewith the idea that there are territorial peculiarities over which a common style of action prevails,which does not allow us to refer either to a state-wide model of TSSA or to differentiatedregional models