Philanthropy, the Nonprofit Sector & the Democratic Dilemma

Daedalus ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dobkin Hall
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Private Power ◽  
Democratic Dilemma

The central dilemma of American democracy is the tension between “voice” and “equality”: between the Constitution's unconditional guarantees of citizens' expressive, associational, and property rights and the legal and political equality that is the foundation of majoritarian decision-making. Philanthropy and nonprofit organizations – which enable citizens to give money and time to support causes in which they believe – have posed this dilemma with unusual force, allowing moneyed minorities to oppose and sometimes overwhelm the popular will. In the past, these assertions of private power have inevitably aroused popular opposition producing legislative and regulatory outcomes that have maintained a balance between voice and equality. Today, with unprecedented accumulations of wealth and legal changes permitting the unrestricted use of wealth in politics, the unchallenged exercise of private power through philanthropy and the nonprofit sector poses grave threats to the democratic process.

scholarly journals Civic Participation of Visible Minorities in Canadian Society: the role of nonprofit organizations in Canada’s four most diverse cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Meinhard ◽  
Farhat Faridi ◽  
Pauline O'Connor ◽  
Manveer Randhawa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Visible Minorities ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Specific Interests

Newcomer engagement or participation in the nonprofit sector has been shown to be an important pillar for upholding democracy, linked to voting behaviour and political participation; the creation of social capital; and enhancement of newcomer involvement in local decision making. This paper presents results of a study that focuses on two ways in which immigrant minorities have their interests represented in community decision-making: the first through the formation of ethno-specific voluntary organizations that represent their specific interests; the second via participation as leaders, board members and volunteers in ‘mainstream’ nonprofit and public organizations. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation

Does Performance Measurement Improve Strategic Decision Making? Findings From a National Survey of Nonprofit Social Service Agencies

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly LeRoux ◽  
Nathaniel S. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Strategic Decision Making ◽  
Performance Information

Nonprofits have encountered increased pressures for accountability and performance in recent years, both from their funding entities as well as the public. The adoption of performance measurement systems assumes that managers will use performance information to make better decisions. However, little research has focused on performance information use in the nonprofit sector. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature. Using survey data from several hundred nonprofit social service organizations in the United States, this article examines the extent to which reliance on various performance measures improves strategic decision making within nonprofit organizations. Authors find a positive relationship between the range of performance measures used by nonprofits and their level of effectiveness in strategic decision making. Other factors that also contribute to strategic decision making within nonprofits include effective governance, funding diversity, and education level of the executive director.

Psychobiological Politics

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glendon Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
Brain Lateralization ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Brain Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
Political Perception

AbstractStrikingly innovative developments in brain science during the past two decades, reflecting advances in a dozen different biological disciplines (such as biochemistry, biophysics, endocrinology, neuropsychology, genetics, and human development) have created a new psychobiology that thus far appears to have had only slight impact upon mainstream political science theory and research. This field analysis examines the implications of psychobiology for the study and practice of politics, from the perspective of the founding father of political behaviouralism. The article discusses the psychobiology of mind in terms of human consciousness and memory and then examines the epigenetic and recursive relationships between brain structure and political perception; between brain lateralization and dynamics, and political thinking and decision-making; and between brain development and political equality, with particular regard to sex, age, health, race, and intelligence.

scholarly journals The Impact of Government Funding on Competition in the Nonprofit Sector: An Integrative Model and Review of Empirical Research

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shena Ashley
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Organizational Effects ◽  
The Impact

AbstractChanges in the scope and structure of public sector funding over the past few decades have had significant effects on the organizational environment in which nonprofit organizations operate. This article presents an integrative model within which the empirical literature regarding government funding effects on nonprofits is reviewed. This model conceptualizes the effects as deriving from two discrete forces – supply dynamics that have immediate population-level influences and a set of implementation dynamics that shape competition via organizational effects. This integrated model provides coherence to the literature and supplies a framework for future research.

scholarly journals Civic Participation of Visible Minorities in Canadian Society: the role of nonprofit organizations in Canada’s four most diverse cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Meinhard ◽  
Farhat Faridi ◽  
Pauline O'Connor ◽  
Manveer Randhawa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Visible Minorities ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Specific Interests

Newcomer engagement or participation in the nonprofit sector has been shown to be an important pillar for upholding democracy, linked to voting behaviour and political participation; the creation of social capital; and enhancement of newcomer involvement in local decision making. This paper presents results of a study that focuses on two ways in which immigrant minorities have their interests represented in community decision-making: the first through the formation of ethno-specific voluntary organizations that represent their specific interests; the second via participation as leaders, board members and volunteers in ‘mainstream’ nonprofit and public organizations. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation

Reducing the Burden of Decision in Digital Democracy Applications: A Comparative Analysis of Six Decision-making Software

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110540
Author(s):  
Marco Deseriis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Design Code ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Aggregate Burden ◽  
The Relationship

The more digital democracy applications lower the costs of political participation, allowing ordinary citizens to propose their own policy initiatives, the more they increase the burden of decision for the very same citizens, who are required to debate and vote on many issues. Drawing from this paradox, this article considers how the designers and administrators of six popular decision-making software (DMS) have introduced software features and norms of use whose function is to reduce the aggregate burden of decision for participants in digital democracy initiatives (DDIs). Building upon Andrew Feenberg’s definition of the design code of technology as a technical stabilization of social demands, this article considers how different DMS stabilize the democratic interventions of a plurality of actors, affecting political equality along two axes of the democratic process: the relationship between the exchange of opinions and the synthesis of opinion and the relationship between agenda setting and voting. This article concludes that the design code of digital democracy software reflects an ongoing tension between the need of governing actors to make the democratic process manageable and the pressure of social actors to make it more equal and inclusive.

21st Century Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector

2012 ◽  
pp. 363-372
Author(s):  
Sharon G. Juozapavicius
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Education Technology ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
21St Century Education ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
21St Century Leadership

The past decade has birthed not only remarkable advances in technology, but also an evolution of thought concerning nonprofit organizations. This ontogeny has brought the nonprofit sector face-to-face with a new reality. A certainty confronting head-on the old mores that have dictated the sensibilities by which a nonprofit’s manner and method were framed. Success, in the 21st century marketplace, now requires a non-profit to be both technically astute and business savvy. It must not only equal or outperform its sister agencies, but also meet challenges posed by the worlds of commerce and government. Its leadership in turn must be equipped to handle these challenges and oversee profitable processes and procedures. This chapter will consider four key requisites for nonprofit leaders in the 21st century: education, technology, know-how, and environment. It will examine the role each plays in a leadership portfolio, along with the difficulties and rewards inherent in their determination and utilization.

Must Democracy Be Reasonable?

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Christiano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Past ◽  
Moral Debate ◽  
The Common

Democratic theorists stress the importance of free and equal discussion and debate in a well-functioning democratic process. In this process, citizens attempt to persuade each other to support legislation by appealing to considerations of justice, liberty or the common good and are open to changing their minds when hearing the arguments of others. They are concerned to ground policy and legislation on the most defensible considerations of morality and the best empirical evidence. To be sure, majority rule remains important in democratic decision making because of the persistence of disagreement. But many have argued that debates over legislation that appeal to moral considerations ought to be given a much larger place in our understanding of the ideals of democracy than theorists have given them in the past. This emphasis on the importance of moral debate and discussion in democracy is characteristic of what I call the wide view of deliberative democracy.

Economic Way of Thought and Legislationon Nonprofit Organizations

2012 ◽  
pp. 48-63
Author(s):  
L. Yakobson
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Social Medium ◽  
The State ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Comparative Advantages ◽  
Essential Prerequisite

The article considers proper legislation as an essential prerequisite for actualization of NPOs comparative advantages. Restrictions imposed on NPOs are reasonable if they are compensated by benefits from greater trust. The rigidity of constrains and requirements should be optimized while accounting for peculiarities of a social medium, the state of the nonprofit sector, and the governments readiness to encourage the development of the latter. As empirical data suggests, Russian NPOs being on different stages of maturity need separate legal treatment. In the meanwhile, interests that prevail in the NPOs community are not always conducive to rapid changes.

The Priority of Democracy

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Knight ◽  
James Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Federal Reserve ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Institutional Choice ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Strong Case ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

Pragmatism and its consequences are central issues in American politics today, yet scholars rarely examine in detail the relationship between pragmatism and politics. This book systematically explores the subject and makes a strong case for adopting a pragmatist approach to democratic politics—and for giving priority to democracy in the process of selecting and reforming political institutions. What is the primary value of democracy? When should we make decisions democratically and when should we rely on markets? And when should we accept the decisions of unelected officials, such as judges or bureaucrats? This book explores how a commitment to pragmatism should affect our answers to such important questions. It concludes that democracy is a good way of determining how these kinds of decisions should be made—even if what the democratic process determines is that not all decisions should be made democratically. So, for example, the democratically elected U.S. Congress may legitimately remove monetary policy from democratic decision-making by putting it under the control of the Federal Reserve. This book argues that pragmatism offers an original and compelling justification of democracy in terms of the unique contributions democratic institutions can make to processes of institutional choice. This focus highlights the important role that democracy plays, not in achieving consensus or commonality, but rather in addressing conflicts. Indeed, the book suggest that democratic politics is perhaps best seen less as a way of reaching consensus or agreement than as a way of structuring the terms of persistent disagreement.

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