Authors

Rob Atkinson

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2012

Publication Title

William & Mary Policy Review

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

Wm. & Mary Pol'y Rev.

Volume

4

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

76

Abstract

This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of today's standard theory of the philanthropic sector to provide a new model that is both more accurate in its details and more comprehensive in its scope. The standard theory sees the philanthropic sector as subordinate and supplementary to our capitalist market economy and liberal democratic polity. That approach has a fundamental short-coming: its explanation of both the state and philanthropy as adjuncts to the market fails to appreciate the ways in which all three sectors support and supplement each other. The standard model's primary focus on the market ignores how the demands that we make on both the state and the market ultimately derive from value systems the philanthropic sector not only gives us, but also prepares us to accept. From this perspective, the philanthropic sector functions, not as an adjunct to the state and the market, under those sectors' standards of consumer demand and majority preference, but rather as both their foundation and their metric.

Rights

© 2012 Rob Atkinson

Comments

First published in William & Mary Policy Review.

Faculty Biography

http://www.law.fsu.edu/our-faculty/profiles/atkinson

Download

Share

COinS