Private action and the public good

Walter W Powell, Elisabeth Stephanie Clemens

YALE University Press, 1998 - Social Science - 313 pages

Governments around the world are turning over more of their services to private or charitable organizations, as politicians and pundits celebrate participation in civic activities. But can nonprofits provide more and higher-quality services than governments or for-profit businesses? Will nonprofits really increase social connectedness and civic engagement? This book, a sequel to Walter W. Powell's widely acclaimed The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, brings together an original collection of writings that explore the nature of the "public good" and how private nonprofit organizations relate to it.

The contributors to this book -- eminent sociologists, political scientists, management scholars, historians, and economists -- examine the nonprofit sector through a variety of theoretical and methodological lenses. They consider the tensions between the provision of public goods and the interests of members and donors in nonprofit organizations. They contrast religious and secular nonprofits, as well as private and nonprofit provision of child care, mental health services, and health care. And they explore the growing role of nonprofits in the United States, France, Germany, and Eastern Europe, the contribution of nonprofits to economic development, and the forms and strategies of private action.

"This volume addresses an extremely important topic from an academic standpoint and from a public policy perspective -- how nonprofits might contribute to the collective good, why they often fail, and some of the consequences for the larger society of their pursuit of the public good". -- Joseph Galaskiewicz, University of Minnesota

About the author

Walter W. Powell is professor of education and (by courtesy) organizational behavior, sociology, and communications at Stanford University. He is also an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. Richard Steinberg is professor of economics, philanthropic studies, and public affairs at Indiana University1;Purdue University Indianapolis.

Clemens is associate professor of sociology at the University of Arizona.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Private action and the public good
• Editors: Walter W Powell, Elisabeth Stephanie Clemens
• Contributor: Walter W Powell
• Publisher: YALE University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0300064497, 9780300064490
• Length: 313 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Political Process / General; Political Science / Public Policy / General; Social Science / General; Social Science / Human Services; Social Science / Philanthropy & Charity