Regulatory Waves: Comparative Perspectives on State Regulation and Self-Regulation Policies in the Nonprofit Sector

Description

All governments, in various ways, regulate and control nonprofit organizations. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), while hopeful of supportive regulatory environments, are simultaneously seeking greater autonomy both to provide services and to advocate for policy change. In part to counter increasing statutory regulation, there is a global nonprofit sector movement towards greater grassroots regulation - what the authors call self-regulation - through codes of conduct and self-accreditation processes. This book drills down to the country level to study both sides of this equation, examining how state regulation and nonprofit self-regulation affect each other and investigating the causal nature of this interaction. Exploring these issues from historical, cultural, political, and environmental perspectives, and in sixteen jurisdictions (Australia, China, Brazil, Ecuador, England and Wales, Ethiopia, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda, Scotland, United States, and Vietnam), the authors analyze the interplay between state control and nonprofit self-regulation to better understand broader emerging trends.

Oonagh B. Breen is a Senior Lecturer at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin where she teaches NGO law. Her research focuses on comparative charity law regulation and governance and the development of more structured legal relationships between the state and the non-profit sector. She has been a Research Fellow at Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations (2009), an Ian Potter Foundation Fellow at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (2016) and serves on the Boards of both the International Society for Third-Sector Research and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. Alison Dunn is an independent researcher, having recently retired from the position of Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University. Her research interests are in charity law and the law relating to nonprofits, particularly governance and the regulation of political activities of charities and nonprofit organizations, on which she has published widely. She is editor of The Voluntary Sector, The State and the Law (2000) and is an Honorary Fellow of the Charity Law and Policy Unit, University of Liverpool. Mark Sidel is Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2016 he is also serving as the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Visiting Chair in Community Foundations at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Sidel has served as president of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) and as visiting professor of law at Harvard University, Massachusetts, the University of Melbourne, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and other institutions.

'Bravo to the editors and authors! Regulatory Waves achieves what no volume has done before: to explain why such big differences exist in how countries regulate charities and nonprofits, with heavy state regulation in some and self-regulation in others. It deftly shows the ebb and flow between state and self-regulation across a diverse set of countries in a style as engaging as a Grisham mystery. Regulatory Waves is a must-read and an essential reference.' Susan Phillips, University of Technology, Brisbane 'This collection represents the best of scholarship on the complex and important theme of regulation of the not-for-profit sector. Breen, Dunn and Sidel have combined the wisdom of multiple jurisdictions, traditions, and methods to deliver a book that will undoubtedly inform public policy and law reform at what is a critical time for civil society in many countries.' Matthew Harding, University of Melbourne, Australia 'The concept of regulatory cycles or 'waves' is a fascinating one, which is applied, with great success, to the nonprofit sector in this book. The authors question whether state and non-state regulation occurs in waves and, in so doing, they analyze the drivers for and relationships between state and non-state intervention in nonprofit regulatory frameworks around the globe. The book is a welcome addition for scholars working in the nonprofit field.' Debra Morris, University of Liverpool 'Breaking new ground on a formerly understudied yet pertinent area, this collection of articles fills a previously left void in the literature on nonprofit studies in which the exploration of the give and take between, in conjunction with the power dynamics, size and scope of, forms of regulation of the nonprofit sector has been largely absent. This compilation is both a timely and important read in terms of providing insight to academics, nonprofit actors and statutory decision makers regarding the potential catalysts prompting regulatory change of the nonprofit sector in specific jurisdictions. In addition, this book sets out policy principles for decision makers of both statutory and non-statutory regulation mechanisms in the non-profit sector specifically and other regulatory sectors generally.' Rachel Zeliger, International Society for Third-Sector Research 'Regulatory Waves is a book full of nuanced and in-depth exploration of the realities and thoughtful argumentation of the possibilities for non-profit regulation and is a must read for anyone interested in the sector's future development and in the drivers and effects of regulation more generally.' Bronwen Dalton, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 'Breaking new ground on a formerly understudied yet pertinent area, this collection of articles fills a previously left void in the literature on nonprofit studies in which the exploration of the give and take between, in conjunction with the power dynamics, size and scope of, forms of regulation of the nonprofit sector has been largely absent. This compilation is both a timely and important read in terms of providing insight to academics, nonprofit actors and statutory decision makers regarding the potential catalysts prompting regulatory change of the nonprofit sector in specific jurisdictions.' Rachel Zeliger, Voluntas