Insider Status and Outsider Tactics: Advocacy Tactics of Human Service Nonprofits in the Age of New Public Governance

Abstract

AbstractPolicy advocacy is an eminent feature of the activities of non-profit human service organizations (NPHSOs), allowing them to represent their constituencies, in addition to their core activity as providers of social services in welfare states. The article presents findings on the advocacy tactics of 47 NPHSOs in Israel, focusing on the ways in which partnership policies in the age of New Public Governance affect their activities. The findings reveal that the shift towards increased governmental funding and contracting-out to nonprofits, as part of the NPG scheme, increases opportunities for the NPHSOs to influence public policy, using a wide variety of both insider cooperative tactics and more confrontational outsider tactics. NPHSOs are firstly concerned with establishing their insider status, using cooperative tactics. After achieving this goal, they feel confident enough to turn to more aggressive outsider tactics, utilizing their relative power as major providers of social services.