This book offers a multi-dimensional account of why the third sector (associations, foundations, cooperatives, social enterprises and related non-profit organizations) differs so markedly across European countries. Combining historical-institutional, political-economic, moral-cultural, legal-regulatory and structural-economic perspectives, it links values, cleavage histories, welfare-state design and institutionalized state–civil-society relations to observable national patterns of third-sector structure, function and behaviour. The volume pairs conceptual innovation with an original empirical programme (cluster analysis, multi-level modelling and policy-field case comparisons) and shows how different “third-sector regimes” arise from interactions between welfare institutions, moral logics, and economic contexts. It will be of interest to scholars and policy makers who want theory-driven, evidence-based explanations of cross-national variation in non-profit size, welfare provision by third-sector actors, organizational hybridity and the democratic role of civil society.

Bernard Enjolras is a Research Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector at the Institute for Social Research, Norway. He is Editor of the Palgrave Studies in Third Sector Research Series and serves as member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR). His research includes topics such as volunteering, voluntary organizations, governance, social capital and trust, as well as civic engagement, the digitization of the public sphere, freedom of expression, social media, social and cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, and computational social science.