Does Civil Society Stop the Downward Spiral of Bad Government or Speed It Up?

Abstract

This article examines the nonprofit sector’s impact on good government. Through a brief synthesis of several literatures, the author constructs two competing hypotheses. In the first, nonprofit activity acts as a self-correcting force for the public sector; in the second, the third sector accelerates bad government’s downward spiral.The authors hows that the key element in deciding between these hypotheses is the relationship between confidence in government and participation in civil society.