September 30, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector, Volume Two
edited by Lester M. Salamon and S. Wojciech Sokolowski
This book provides data from a scholarly effort to assess the scope and structure of nonprofit groups in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Produced by the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, the book also presents the results of an index designed to gauge the health of civil-society organizations in more than 30 countries worldwide.
Lester M. Salamon, who directs the project, and a group of international contributors discuss the history, vitality, volunteer capacity, and financing of nonprofit groups in eight countries in Africa and Asia, and three in the Middle East. They also provide chapters on three other nations for which data were not previously available: Italy, Norway, and Poland.
The authors discuss the challenges facing nonprofit organizations in each of the countries, and provide specific recommendations for how to strengthen their effectiveness. Nonprofit groups in Pakistan, for instance, have struggled since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks under suspicions that they aid terrorist groups in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the authors.
The Johns Hopkins Global Civil Society Index ranks 34 nations based on the capacity, sustainability, and impact of their civil-society groups.
The Netherlands, which provides significant financing for nonprofit groups, and Norway, which has an expansive volunteer corps, top the list.
Pakistan ranks last, behind Mexico and Romania, while the United States is ranked third.
The book’s overview chapter offers cross-national findings as well as comparisons by region.
The nonprofit world is a major economic force, the authors write, surpassing all but six nations in its total expenditures, and employing about 4.4 percent of the world’s work force.
Meanwhile, private donations account for a relatively small percentage of civil-society groups’ financing, at 12 percent, far exceeded by fees and government support.
And although nonprofit organizations differ greatly by country, the authors say, some trends are discernible in the evolution of nonprofit groups in different regions.
Nonprofit groups occupy a significant role in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia because of the historically small scope of public social welfare, they write, while nonprofit groups in most Western European nations emerged largely as a result of cooperation between the government and religious institutions to provide social-welfare protections. And while developing countries boast high levels of volunteer participation, limited financial support has hindered the effectiveness of civil-society groups in such countries, the authors write.
Publisher: Kumarian Press, 1294 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, Conn. 06002; (860) 243-2098 or (800) 289-2664; fax (860) 243-2867; kpbooks@aol.com; http://www.kpbooks.com; 335 pages; $39.95; I.S.B.N. 1-56549-184-X.
