Presents a comparative overview of non-profit or third-sector organizations in a wider welfare policy and civil society context. It addresses the social, economic, and political developments that have made this set of institutions more central to policy debates in developed market economies; in particular, within a broad policy framework known as the Third Way, which, unlike other policy approaches, pays the greatest and most systematic attention to the non-profit sector. The chapter finds that the strength of the Third Way stance toward the non-profit sector is closely related to its weakness: Because its basic perspective towards voluntarism and civil society overlaps significantly with those of neo-liberalism on the one hand, and with approaches in reformed minded post-corporatists countries, its distinct policy thrust is hard to fathom. Indeed, many countries practice some form of ‘third-wayism’ in their search for new policy approaches to modernize the welfare state.
Keywords: civil society, non-profit regime types, non-profit sector, State-society relations, third sector, Third Way, voluntary organizations, welfare state,