“The Big Society,” Public Expenditure, and Volunteering

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThe debate on volunteering has paid insufficient attention to the relationship between public spending and volunteering. Recently, the importance of this relationship was highlighted by the current British government's "Big Society" plan, which asserts that withdrawing public agencies and spending will be compensated by an increase in volunteering. This idea is based on the widely held belief that a high degree of government intervention decreases voluntary activities. This paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to develop a more refined understanding of how public spending affects the decision to volunteer. A theoretical model conceptualizes this relationship in terms of time donation by employed individuals. The model is empirically developed through an econometric analysis of two survey data sets and interpretative analysis of narratives of local volunteers and public professionals. The results suggest that volunteering is likely to decline when government intervention is decreased and recommend a collaborative approach to sustaining volunteering.Keywords: volunteering, labor supply, public goods, altruism. and taxation, the Conservative Party proposed a radical turn to a small government and a "Big Society". Eventually, the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal-Democrats and launched their plan for the Big Society. The main idea is that "rolling back big government" will lead "communities" to start running public services (Cabinet Office 2010). The idea that voluntary activity should, can, and will emerge as a perfect substitute for the welfare state has reinvigorated debate on the relationship between government and society, or, more specifically, between public spending and volunteering. The analysis concludes that less public spending reduces the likelihood of (successful)volunteering. Lower public spending increases the probability of setbacks and frustrations for volunteers and decreases the availability of adequate support structures and professional skills. This leads to three conclusions and recommendations: (1) public spending is needed to prevent volunteering levels to drop, (2) employed individuals do voluntary work if they see it as worth their time, and (3) for public spending to increase volunteering, governments and voluntary organizations should cultivate local abilities and volunteering infrastructure based on collaborative relationships. Public Spending and Volunteering by Employed IndividualsThe literature provides important insigh...

Determinants of participation in voluntary work: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies

“…Yes} “Do you do any volunteering?” Mixed 499 N.R. 32,3 Bartels et al [ 19 ] BHPS h UK i Employed individuals aged ≤60 y N.R. N.R.…”

Blurring and Bridging: The Role of Volunteers in Dementia Care within Homes and Communities

“…For example, focusing on specific areas of activity such as sport (Whittaker, 2016;Ahn, 2018), charities (Flores, 2014;Darley, 2018), faith-based organisations (Caputo, 2009) or certain demographics such as younger people (Hustinx et al, 2010;Gronlund et al, 2011) and older people (Kahana et al, 2013;Tang, 2015). Policy insight around volunteering includes the importance of government intervention and spending in relation to volunteer participation (Bartels et al, 2013), financial return on investment in volunteering, and wider community benefits including improved resilience and well-being (Paylor, 2011).…”

The Limits and Possibilities of Volunteering: A Framework for Explaining the Scope of Volunteer Involvement in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

“…Much of U.S. public policy regarding volunteerism focuses on national service programs, such as AmeriCorps (Reingold and Lenkowsky ). Although little evidence affirms that public policy affects volunteering rates (Chambré ; Reingold and Lenkowsky ), a decrease in government support could have a negative effect on volunteering (Bartels, Cozzi, and Mantovan ). Thus, the greatest potential for public policy is to provide more support for organizations that want to use volunteers by encouraging the development of volunteer management capacity within organizations and the volunteer management infrastructure of a community (Nesbit and Brudney ).…”