United States Ranks Below the Netherlands and Norway on New Civil-Society Index

The world’s most highly developed voluntary sectors are in the Netherlands and Norway, according to a new index

that ranks 34 countries according to the scope and influence of their nonprofit institutions and organizations.

The United States, which is widely seen as having the world’s most sophisticated nonprofit infrastructure, ranks third on the Hopkins Global Civil Society Index, developed by Lester M. Salamon, who directs the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, together with his colleague, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, a research scientist at the center.

The index, Mr. Salamon says, provides a new way to measure the development of civil society — the aggregation of those formal and informal groups and organizations that are private, voluntary, nonprofit, and self-governing — within a particular country, and to compare the extent and robustness of such groups in one country versus those in another.

At the bottom of the index, with the least-developed civil society among those surveyed, is Pakistan, which trailed Romania, Slovakia, and Mexico.

In the Netherlands, says Mr. Salamon, “there is an extensive pattern of state support for private nonprofit initiatives,” which arose from the country’s decision early in the 20th century to support education at private and parochial schools. That model has since spread to health care, child care, nursing homes, and other social services, and accounts for why so much of the country’s government spending is channeled through nonprofit institutions.

Norway, by contrast, relies heavily on a huge number of volunteers in several areas, particularly those involving sports, recreation, and cultural activities.

“The high scores of some Scandinavian countries will be a big surprise to a lot of people,” notes Mr. Salamon, because countries like Norway and Sweden “have traditionally been considered the ultimate welfare states.”

Three Areas

The index measures three aspects of civil society’s development in each of the countries. One is its overall capacity, as measured by such factors as the number of nonprofit employees and volunteers compared with the total workforce and total donations as a share of gross domestic product.

A second calculation is based on the ability of civil-society groups to sustain themselves over time, as measured by the percentage of total income these organizations generate through fees, sales, dues, and government contracts, for example, as well as the share of a country’s total adult population that volunteers.

The third calculation looks at the impact of civil-society organizations on society, as measured by the share of the population that belongs to at least one such group, for example, and the share of the country’s workforce in four fields (culture and recreation, education, health, and social services) that consists of employees of civil-society organizations.

Netherlands on Top

According to the index, the United States ranks second behind the Netherlands in its civil society’s capacity, but it ranks only fourth (tied with the Netherlands) in sustainability and fifth in terms of its social impact, well behind the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway.

Earlier attempts to come up with comparative indices for civil society have been flawed, the Hopkins scholars say, because they either relied on subjective measures or focused on relatively narrow factors. For example, the NGO Sustainability Index, developed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, relies on estimates by local USAID officials of several factors in selected Central European countries. An attempt by Civicus, an organization that promotes the development of civil society around the world, relied on interviews and focus groups to portray civil society in four dimensions (structure, environment, values, and impact).

Details about the Hopkins index appear in Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector, Volume II, by Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and associates. The book can be ordered from its publisher, Kumarian Press, 1294 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, Conn., 06002; (800) 289-2664; fax (860) 243-2867; or online at http://www.kpbooks.com.

The price is $39.95, plus $4.75 for mailing the first book and $1.50 per additional book.

Books ordered now will be shipped after publication later this summer.