Voluntary Sector Organizations and the State

After years of disparaging most non-state actors as pesky “special interest groups,” the Liberal government embraced certain “third sector” organizations as useful state “partners.” Laforest carefully details how and why this shift in state-voluntary sector relations took place. Her book offers important empirical and analytical insights into this period in Canadian politics and perceptively suggests why it contrasts with, but also lays the foundation for, the subsequent Conservative government’s approach to the voluntary sector.

Caroline Andrew, co-editor of Electing a Diverse Canada: The Representation of Immigrants, Minorities, and Women:

Laforest’s book makes a major contribution to the study of state-voluntary sector relations, linking the work on public policy and civil society. It gives a true sense of the dynamics of the voluntary sector, bringing together policy sectors, internal organizational shifts, and federal government processes. In addition, the author tells a Canadian story in ways that make clear its relation to worldwide shifts in governance.