Abstract

Voluntary sector activity in a democratic state may fulfill many roles and functions, e.g., provision of direct service, advocacy, mediation, citizen participation. This Delphi study of senior executives and chief volunteers in Canada's voluntary sector found that sectoral leaders perceived their organizations to be in a state of crisis, brought on by more fundamental changes in the public philosophy of the state. In addition to reporting the views of sectoral leaders, the study examines the public philosophy of the state in the contemporary and historical Canadian case, using political ideology and notions of "the common good" as principal component variables. The perceived sectoral trauma is placed in the context of current changes in the Canadian public philosophy of the state, as it moves beyond its pluralistic and neo-conservative incarnations. Van Til's 1988 models for voluntary action are expanded to include the communitarian paradigm and to predict resulting organizational role and function changes in Canada's voluntary sector. Special emphasis in those predictions is placed upon the function of governance and the role of boards, as contrasted with previous iterations of the public philosophy of the state