Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organisations in Britain and the United States

This book is about the many organizations in Britain and the United States which are neither legally part of the state nor permitted to distribute any profits they earn. These intermediate organizations include charities, churches, famine relief agencies, non-state universities, credit unions and social clubs. In a study of this area of the British and the American economy, Alan Ware provides an analytical and historical account of the relationship of intermediate organizations to both the state and the for profit sector . Among other issues, the author considers the disappearance of 19th century working class mutual organizations, the growth of profit-making activities by non-profit distributing bodies and the growth and change of voluntarism. He argues that the boundaries between intermediate organizations do not constitute a separate “sector’ of society. The book also examines the problems of regulating such organizations and explains the consequences of the British and American practice of having relatively little state intervention in the affairs of such organizations. Finally the author discusses the activities of these organizations in relation to pluralist accounts of the working of liberal democratic states.