THE GLOBAL ASSOCIATIONAL REVOLUTION: THE RISE OF THE THIRD SECTOR ON THE WORLD SCENE
A major upsurge has taken place over the past two decades in organized, voluntary activity throughout the world, in the formation and increased activism of private, nonprofit, or voluntary, organizations. This article examines this striking growth of a global nonprofit sector and then explores the processes and causes that have given rise to it. In particular, it details the pressures from below, from outside, and from above that have stimulated the growth of the nonprofit sector in disparate settings around the world, and then traces these developments to four "crises" and two revolutions that have combined to weaken the role of the state and increase both the need and the opportunity for organized private activity. Against this backdrop, the article then explores some of the implications that flow from these developments for both public and private action.
