Politics and Partnerships: The Role of Voluntary Associations in America's Political Past and Present - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226109968 ISBN 13: 9780226109961

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2011

Synopsis

Exhorting people to volunteer is part of the everyday vocabulary of American politics. Routinely, members of both major parties call for partnerships between government and nonprofit organizations. These entreaties increase dramatically during times of crisis, and the voluntary efforts of ordinary citizens are now seen as a necessary supplement to government intervention.

But despite the ubiquity of the idea of volunteerism in public policy debates, analysis of its role in American governance has been fragmented. Bringing together a diverse set of disciplinary approaches, Politics and Partnerships is a thorough examination of the place of voluntary associations in political history and an astute investigation into contemporary experiments in reshaping that role. The essays here reveal the key role nonprofits have played in the evolution of both the workplace and welfare and illuminate the way that government’s retreat from welfare has radically altered the relationship between nonprofits and corporations.

About this title

About the Author

Elisabeth S. Clemens is professor of sociology and Master of the Social Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago. Doug Guthrie is professor of sociology at New York University with a joint appointment in the Department of Management and Organization at the Stern School of Business.

Review

“This is an important, agenda-setting volume that, across its varied chapters, demonstrates that nonprofits—and nonprofit scholarship—need to be centered in the study of American political development. From the empirically rigorous essays collected here, it becomes clear that explicit and implicit partnerships between the government and nonprofits have existed long before now and that understanding contemporary politics and policy requires identifying and analyzing the points of intersection between nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. Through its theoretical ambition, the range of historical and contemporary cases it covers, and the quality of its scholarship, Politics and Partnerships sets a new standard in this vital area.” (Debra Minkoff, Barnard College, Columbia University)

“A fantastic collection of essays—one of the few edited volumes I have seen where the whole is much greater than the sum of the individual parts. One of the book’s strengths is its interdisciplinary nature: the editors have assembled a unique set of perspectives, approaches, and studies at different historical periods.”--Christopher Marquis, Harvard Business School

(Christopher Marquis)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0226109968
• ISBN 13: 9780226109961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Clemens Elisabeth S., Guthrie Doug