Public Policy Approaches to the Voluntary Sector

Little is known about the most appropriate methods of conceptualizing the relationships between government and the voluntary sector in advanced market economies and this represents the central concern of the present paper. The paper begins with a synoptic review of the main elements of public policy making, and then examines the problem of 'sectorization'. The substantive body of the paper evaluates a number of approaches developed in the literature that could constitute a framework for formulating public policy on the voluntary sector. The discussion ends with some brief concluding remarks.