Constraining campaigning: the legal treatment of non-profit policy advocacy across 24 countries

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the findings of a 24 country study of the legal restrictions on the freedom of non-profit and charitable organisations to engage in public policy campaigning. The countries are divided into those which organise the legal status of non-profit bodies around the concept of a charity, and those that do not. The central finding is that all and only charity law countries have constraints on campaigning which are specific to non-profit bodies. The paper reviews a number of possible explanations for this, at the level of jurisprudential rationales which might show that it is necessary or at least rational for only the charity law countries to have developed such restrictions. To varying degrees, all are found wanting. It is suggested that no explanation based on an 'inner logic of the law" will serve to explain the phenomenon, and that future research might concentrate on comparative political history rather than on jurisprudence.

The best of times, the worst of times: Community-sector advocacy in the age of ‘compacts’

“…The discourse on these constraints has been expressed in terms of lack of resources, deliberate exclusion from decisionmaking domains of those likely to challenge the status quo, and, as noted in the introduction, the perennial dangers of 'biting the hand that feeds' (Roelofs 1987;Maddison, Denniss and Hamilton 2004). Also, given the early concerns about the legitimacy of advocacy by CSOs, governments in many countries have used a variety of legislative and funding processes to restrict advocacy (Randon and 6 1994), although in Australia there has been little legislation in this area.…”

Communicating philanthropy: The media and the voluntary sector in Britain

“…On a basic level, advocacy may place groups in direct conflict with the institutions that support them. On another, campaigning can often take groups uncomfortably close to the terrain of party politics, which --for organisations with charitable status at least --raises a host of serious issues, as regulations prohibiting inappropriate political activities by charities are both long-standing and becoming increasingly stringent (Randon and 6, 1994).…”