Civil Society Actors and the Welfare State. A historically-based analytical framework


Abstract


Civil society actors have always been crucial players in the development of welfare systems. Far before the appearance of the welfare state, the provision of services to those in need was the domain of charities and guilds, and later on of the mutual aid organizations related to the labour movement. To-gether with providing services, civil society actors have exerted political pressure on the state, demanding an enlargement of social rights or challenging the principles of public intervention. Such a relevant role became even more pivotal after the '70s, when the welfare mix model paved the way for the entrance of third sector organizations into public service provision and governance processes. Within this scenario, this article aims to develop a historically-based conceptual framework, through which the huge heterogeneity of civil society actors and functions can be analyzed. The possibility of performing several roles represents an opportunity for civil society actors, but at the same times engenders contradictions and trade-offs for social movements and the third sector.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v12i2p259

Keywords: Third sector; social movements; welfare systems; civil society; contentious politics; service providing

References


Aiken M., I. Bode (2009), “Killing the golden goose? Third sector organizations and back‐to‐work programmes in Germany and the UK”, Social Policy & Administration, 43(3): 209-225.

Alber J. (1982). “Le origini del welfare state: teorie, ipotesi ed analisi empirica”, Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 12(3): 361-421.

Amin A., A. Cameron, R. Hudson (2002), Placing the Social Economy, London: Routledge.

Annetts, J., A. Law, W. McNeish, G. Mooney, G. (2009). Understanding social welfare movements. Cambridge: Policy Press.

Ascoli U., C. Ranci (eds. 2002), Dilemmas of the welfare mix: The new structure of welfare in an era of privatization, Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.

Barker C., M. Lavalette (2015), “Welfare changes and social movements” in D. della Porta, M. Diani (eds), The Oxford handbook of social movement. Oxford Handbooks Online. doi: http://doi. org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199678402.013.

Birchall J. (ed) (2002, The new mutualism in public policy, London: Routledge.

Bloodgood, E., J. Tremblay-Boire (2017), “Does government funding depoliticize non-governmental organizations? Examining evidence from Europe”, European Political Science Review, 9(3): 401-424.

Bode, I., T. Brandsen (2014), “State–third sector partnerships: A short overview of key issues in the debate”, Public Management Review, 16(8): 1055-1066.

Bosi L., L. Zamponi (2015), “Direct social actions and economic crises: The relationship between forms of action and socio-economic context in Italy”, Partecipazione e Conflitto, 8(2): 367-391.

Brandsen, T., W. Trommel, B. Verschuere (2017), “The state and the reconstruction of civil society”, International Review of Administrative Sciences, 83(4); 676-693.

Brody E. (1995), “Agents without principals: The economic convergence of the nonprofit and for-profit organizational forms”, New York Law School Law Review 40(4): 457–536.

Busso S. (2017). “The De-Politicization of Social Policy at the Time of Social Investment. Mechanisms and Distinctive Features”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 10(2): 421-447.

Busso S. (2018), “Away from Politics? Trajectories of Italian Third Sector after the 2008 Crisis”, Social Sciences, 7(11): 228.

Castel R. (2003), From manual workers to wage laborers: transformation of the social question, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Castells M., J. Caraça, G. Cardoso (eds.) (2012), Aftermath: The cultures of the economic crisis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Castells M., S. Banet-Weiser, S. Hlebik, G. Kallis, S. Pink, K. Seale, A. Varvarousis (eds.) (2017), Another economy is possible: Culture and economy in a time of crisis, Malden: Polity Press.

Corry O. (2010), “Defining and theorizing the third sector”, in R. Taylor (ed), Third sector research, New York: Springer, pp. 11-20.

Cress D. M. (1997), “Nonprofit incorporation among movements of the poor: Pathways and consequences for homeless social movement organizations”, The Sociological Quarterly, 38(2): 343-360.

Crouch C. (2001), “Welfare State Regimes and Industrial Relations Systems: The Questionable Role of Path Dependency Theory”, in B. Ebbinghaus, P. Manow (eds), Comparing Welfare Capitalism: Social Policy and Political Economy in Europe, Japan and the USA, London: Routledge.

Davies J. S. (2007), “The limits of partnership: an exit-action strategy for local democratic inclusion”, Political studies, 55(4): 779-800.

Davis G. F., D. McAdam, W.R. Scott, M.N. Zald (eds.) (2005), Social movements and organization theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

de Leonardis O. (1998), In un diverso welfare: sogni e incubi, Milano: Feltrinelli.

de Swaan A. (1988), In Care of the State. Health Care, Education and Welfare in Europe and the USA in the Modern Era, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Deakin N. (2001), In Search of Civil Society, Houndmills: Palgrave.

Dean M. (1992), “A genealogy of the government of poverty”, Economy and so-ciety, 21(3): 215-251.

Della Porta D., M. Diani, M. (2006). Social movements: An introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.

Edwards M. (2009), Civil Society - 2nd edition, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Edwards M. (2011), “Introduction: Civil Society and the Geometry of Human Relations”, in Edwards M. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Eikenberry A. M., J. D. Kluver (2004), “The marketization of the nonprofit sector: Civil society at risk?”, Public Administration Review 64(2):132–40.

Eliasoph N. (1998), Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eliasoph N. (2013), The Politics of Volunteering, Malden: Polity Press.

Evers A. (1995), “Part of the welfare mix: The third sector as an intermediate area”, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 6(2):159-182.

Evers A. (1993) ‘The Welfare Mix Approach. Understanding the Pluralisms of Welfare States’, in A. Evers and I. Svetlik (eds) Balancing Pluralism. New Welfare Mixes in Care for the Elderly. Aldershot: Avebury.

Evers A., J.L. Laville (2004), “Defining the Third Sector in Europe”, in A. Evers, J.L. Laville (eds), The Third Sector in Europe, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Ferraris P. (2011), Ieri e domani. Storia critica del movimento operaio e socialista ed emancipazione dal presente, Roma: Edizioni dell’Asino.

Ewald F. (1996), Histoire de L’Etat providence: Les Origines de la solidarité, Paris: Grasset.

Finlayson G. B. (1994), Citizen, state, and social welfare in Britain 1830-1990, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Fischer F. (2006), “Participatory governance as deliberative empowerment: The cultural politics of discursive space”, The American review of public administration, 36(1): 19-40.

Flora P., J. Alber, (1981), “Modernization, democratization, and the development of welfare states in Western Europe”, in P. Flora, A.J. Heidenheimer (eds), The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America, New Brunswick: Transaction Books.

Franz H.J. (1991), “Interorganizational policy coordination: arrangements of shared government”, in E.X. Kaufmann (ed.), The public sector. Challenge for coordination and learning, Berlin:De Gruyter

Fraser N. (1989), “Talking about needs: interpretive contests as political conflicts in welfare-state societies”, Ethics, 99(2): 291-313.

Fraser, N. (1990). “Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy”, Social text, (25/26): 56-80.

Fyfe N. R. (2005), “Making space for “neo‐communitarianism”? The third sector, state and civil society in the UK”, Antipode, 37(3): 536-557.

Gaynor N. (2011), “Associations, Deliberation, and Democracy: The Case of Ireland’s Social Partnership”, Politics & Society, 39(4): 497-519.

Ginsborg, P. (1990), A History of Contemporary Italy, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Giugni M. (1998), “Social movements and change: Incorporation, transformation, and democratization”, in M. Giugni, D. McAdam, C. Tilly (eds), From contention to democracy, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Giugni M., M.T. Grasso (2016), “How civil society actors responded to the economic crisis: The interaction of material deprivation and perceptions of political opportunity structures”, Politics & Policy, 44(3): 447-472.

Guigni M. (1998), “Was It Worth the Effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements,” Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1): 371–393.

Heclo H. (1974), Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hobsbawm E., Y.G. Rude (1968), Captain swing: a social history of the great english agricultural uprising of 1830, Pantheon: New York.

Hopkins E. (2000), Industrialisation and Society : A Social History, 1830-1951, London: Routledge.

Janoski T. (1998), Citizenship and civil society: A framework of rights and obligations in liberal, traditional, and social democratic regimes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jenkins J.C. (2006), “Nonprofit organizations and political advocacy” in W.W. Powell, R. Steinberg (eds), The nonprofit sector: A research handbook, New Haven: Yale Univesity Press.

Jensen L. S. (2015), “Social provision before the twentieth century”, in D. Béland, K.J. Morgan, C. Howard (eds), Oxford Handbook of US Social Policy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jessop B. (ed) (1991), The welfare state in the transition from fordism to post-fordism in the politics of Flexibility: Restructuring State and Industry in Britain, Germany and Scandinavia, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Joy M., J. Shields (2013), “Social impact bonds: The next phase of third sector marketization?”, Canadian journal of nonprofit and social economy research, 4(2): 39-55.

Kaldor M. (2003), Global Civil Society: An Answer to War?, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Kousis M., M. Paschou (2017), “Alternative forms of resilience. A typology of approaches for the study of citizen collective responses in hard economic times”, Partecipazione e Conflitto, 10(2): 136-168.

Kriesi H. (1996), “The Organizational Structure of New Social Movements in a Political Context”, in D. McAdam, J. McCarthy, M.N. Zald (eds.), Comparative Perspective on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kuhnle S., A. Sander (2010), “The emergence of the western welfare state” in F. G. Castles, S. Leibfried, J. Lewis, H. Obinger, C. Pierson (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the welfare state, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lewis J. (1999), “Voluntary and Informal Welfare”, in R.M. Page, R. Silburn (eds), British Social Welfare in the Twentieth Century, London: Palgrave.

Lewis J. (1992), “Gender and the development of welfare regimes”, Journal of European Social Policy, 2(3): 159–73.

Lister R. (1997), Feminism and Citizenship, London: Macmillan.

Marshall T. H. (1950), Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCarthy J.D., M.N. Zald (1977), “Resource mobilization and social movements: A partial theory”, American journal of sociology, 82(6): 1212-1241.

McCarthy, J. D., D.W. Britt, M. Wolfson (1991), “The institutional channeling of social movements by the state in the United States”, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 13(2): 45-76.

Meriggi M. G. (2005), Cooperazione e mutualismo: esperienze di integrazione e conflitto sociale in Europa fra Ottocento e Novecento, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Mettler, S., J. Soss (2004), “The consequences of public policy for democratic citizenship: Bridging policy studies and mass politics”, Perspectives on politics, 2(1): 55-73.

Milligan, C., D. Conradson (eds.) (2006), Landscapes of voluntarism: New spaces of health, welfare and governance, Cambridge: Policy Press.

Moini G. (2011), “How participation has become a hegemonic discursive resource: towards an interpretivist research agenda”, Critical Policy Studies, 5(2): 149-168.

Morel N., B. Palier, J. Palme (eds.) (2012), Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges, Bristol: Policy Press.

Nickel, P.M., A.M. Eikenberry (2009), “A critique of the discourse of marketized philanthropy”, American Behavioral Scientist 52(7): 974–89.

Offe C. (1987), “Challenging the boundaries of institutional politics. New social movements since the 1960”, in C. Maier (ed.), Changing Boundaries of the Political: Essays on the Evolving Balance between the State and Society, Public and Private in Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Onyx J., L. Armitage, B. Dalton, R. Melville, J. Casey, R. Banks, R. (2010), “Advocacy with gloves on: The “manners” of strategy used by some third sector organizations undertaking advocacy in NSW and Queensland”, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 21(1): 41-61.

Orloff A.S. (1996), “Gender in the welfare state”, Annual Review of Sociology, 22(1): 51–78.

Paci M. (1987), “Long waves in the development of welfare systems” in C. Maier (ed.), Changing Boundaries of the Political: Essays on the Evolving Balance between the State and Society, Public and Private in Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Patriquin L. (2007), Agrarian capitalism and poor relief in England, 1500-1860: rethinking the origins of the welfare state. Berlin:Springer.

Pelling H. (1987), A History of British Trade Unionism, London: Penguin.

Piven F. F., R.A. Cloward (1977), Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, how They Fail , New York: Vintage Books.

Polanyi K. (1944), The Great Transformation, Boston: Beacon Press.

Rapini A. (2010), Lo Stato sociale. Genesi e sviluppo, Bologna: ArchetipoLibri.

Rimlinger G.V. (1971), Welfare Policy and Industrialization in Europe, America and Russia, New York: Wiley & Sons.

Ritter G. A. (1986), Social welfare in Germany and Britain: Origins and development. Berlin: Berg Publishers.

Rose N. (2000), “Community, citizenship, and the third way”, American behavioral scientist, 43(9): 1395-1411.

Rudé G. F. (1995), Ideology and popular protest, Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books.

Sainsbury D. “1996”, Gender, Equality, and Welfare States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Salamon L.M. (1986), “Government and the Voluntary Sector in an Era of Retrenchment: The American Experience”, Journal of Public Policy, 6(1): 1-19.

Salamon L.M., H.K. Anheier (1997), Defining the nonprofit sector: A cross-national analysis, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Savas E. S. (2005), Privatization in the City: Successes, Failures, Lessons, Washington: CQ Press.

Skocpol T. (1997), “The Tocqueville problem: Civic engagement in American democracy”, Social Science History, 21(4): 455–79.

Skocpol T. (2013), Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Slack P. (1990), The English Poor Law, 1531-1782, London: Macmillan.

Smith S.R. (2012), “The nonprofit sector”, in M. Edwards (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith S.R., M. Lipsky (2009), Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Soss, J., R.C. Fording, S. Schram (2011), Disciplining the poor: Neoliberal paternalism and the persistent power of race, Chicago:University of Chicago Press.

Staggenborg S. (1988), "The Consequences of Professionalization and Formalization in the Pro-Choice Movement", American Sociological Review, 53(4): 585-605.

Stoker G. (1998), “Governance as theory: five propositions”, International social science journal, 50(155): 17-28.

Thane P. (1978), “Women and the poor law in Victorian and Edwardian England”, in History Workshop, Editorial Collective, History Workshop, Ruskin College.

Thompson E.P (1978), “Eighteenth-Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class?”, Social History, 3(2): 133-155.

Tilly C. (2004), Social Movements, 1768-2004, London: Routledge.

Uba K., M. Kousis (2018), “Constituency groups of alternative action organizations during hard times: A comparison at the solidarity orientation and country levels”, American Behavioral Scientist, 62(6): 816-836.

Wagenaar H., J. J. van der Heijden (2015), “The Promise of Democracy? Civic Enterprise, Localism and the Transformation of Democratic Capitalism”, in A. Madanipour, S. Davoudi (eds), Reconsidering Localism, London: Routledge.

Walker E. (2013), “Voluntary Associations and Social Movements.” in D. Snow, D. della Porta, B. Klandermans, D. McAdam (eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, New York: Blackwell.

Walzer M. (1998), “The Idea of Civil Society: A Path to Social Reconstruction”, in E. J. Dionne (ed.) Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Weisbrod B.A. (ed.) (1977), The Voluntary Nonprofit Sector: An Economic Analysis, Lexington: Lexington Books.

Weisbrod B.A. (ed.) (2000), To Profit or Not to Profit: The Commercial Transformation of the Nonprofit Sector, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wolch J. R. (1989), “The shadow state: transformations in the voluntary sector” in M.J. Dear, J.R. Wolch (eds.), The Power of geography: how territory shapes social life, London: Unwin Hyman.

Yeo S. (2002), “The new mutualism and Labour’s Third Way” in Birchall, J. (ed.), The new mutualism in public policy, London: Routledge.

Zamponi, L., L. Bosi (2018), “Politicizing solidarity in times of crisis: The politics of alternative action organizations in Greece, Italy, and Spain”, American Behavioral Scientist, 62(6): 796-815.

Articles published in this Special Issue:

Asara V. (2019), “The Redefinition and Co-Production of Public Services by Urban Movements. The Can Batlló Social Innovation in Barcelona”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 539-565.

Bolzoni M. (2019), “Who Shape the City? Non-profit associations and civil society initiatives in urban change processes: role and ambivalences”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 436-459.

Busacca M., F. Zandonai (2019), “Trends and Challenges of the Italian Third Sector in the Field of Community Assets Regeneration. New Convergences between Public Benefit and Social Entrepreneurship”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 513-

Citroni S. (2019), “Gramsci’s Civil Society and the Implicit

Dimension of Politics.. A Case Study”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 487-512.

Jämte J., I. Pitti (2019), “Strategic Interplay in Times of Crisis. Opportunities and chal-lenges for state-civil society interaction during the Swedish “Refugee Crisis” of 2015–2016”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 410-435.

Johansson H., R. Scaramuzzino, and M. Wennerhag (2019), “Social Movements and Interest Groups Compared. How Organisational Type Matters for Explaining Swedish Organisations’ Advocacy Strategies”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 353-381.

Kotronaki L., S. Christou (2019), “(De-)Politicization Trajectories in an Anti-Austerity Contentious Cycle. Social Clinics-Pharmacies Solidarity structures in Greece”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 325-352.

Reggiardo A. (2019), “Distrust and Stigmatization of NGOS and Volunteers at the Time of the European Migrant “Crisis”. Conflict and implications on social solidarity”, Par-tecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 460-486.

Wagenaar H. (2019), “Making Sense of Civic Enterprise. Social Innovation, Participatory Democracy and the Administrative State”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 297-324.

Zamponi L. (2019), “Direct Social Action, Welfare Retrenchment and Political Identities. Coping with the Crisis and Pursuing Change in Italy”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(2): 382-409.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.