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Nonprofit Organisations and Social Economy: Two Ways of Understanding the Third Sector
Author(s) -
Mertens S.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8292.00122
Subject(s) - unitary state , state (computer science) , set (abstract data type) , nonprofit sector , term (time) , voluntary sector , statement (logic) , economic sector , economics , business , economic system , economy , political science , public relations , economic growth , law , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
The term third sector refers to a set of organizations which are neither capitalist, nor governmental. First of all, this paper aims to extent B. Gui's unitary approach to the third‐sector [1991] by focusing on the distinction between third sector and state‐owned bodies. Next I propose to translate the non capitalist and the non governmental conditions into operational criteria. I show that these criteria vary according to the nature of the organisations (general interest versus mutual interest). This statement allows me to justify the emergence of two different ways of understanding the third‐sector in anglo‐saxon and french‐speaking traditions.