On the Road Towards Marketization? A Comparative Analysis of Nonprofit Sector Involvement in Social Service Delivery at the Local Level

Abstract

Nonprofit–government relations in social service provision constitute a widely overlooked topic of both public administration and welfare state research. Referring to the regime approach of welfare state research, the chapter identifies distinctive models of cooperation between nonprofits and local governments. With a focus on a selection of countries—Denmark, Germany, and the UK—which stand for very different welfare regimes and traditions of local governance, changes in the welfare mix of local social service provision are analyzed that are the outcome of processes of adaptation to a significantly changed local environment. Results of the case studies are summarized in the concluding section which highlights trends of convergence as well as path-dependent developments that correspond to the traditions of the respective welfare state regimes.