Introduction

It is now widely accepted that the way in which the UK is governed has undergone a significant transition since the 1980s, with a system of ‘government’, which emphasised the political monopoly of the state, giving way to a new system of ‘governance’, in which the process of governing is conducted through partnerships, networks and ‘tangled hierarchies’ of public, private and voluntary sector actors, agencies and institutions. Although defined by Stoker (1996) as ‘the development of governing styles in which boundaries between and within the public and private sectors have become blurred’ (p 2), the evidence since the 1980s is that governance arrangements have been as much about engaging the voluntary sector as about engaging the private sector. As Leach and Percy-Smith (2001) note in a more inclusive definition, the process of governing ‘is no longer assumed to involve a single, homogeneous all-powerful government, but rather a shifting combination of public departments and agencies, quasi-public bodies, private and voluntary sector organizations, operating at different but interdependent levels’ (p 22).

The transition towards a new system of governance has hence contributed to the reawakening of a latent tradition of voluntarism within UK political and civic culture. Philanthropy and voluntary action played important roles in establishing and developing public services and facilities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including schools, hospitals, social housing, libraries and cultural amenities, and so on (Hunt, 2004). During the 20th century, however, many of these activities were absorbed by the state, driven by two ideological imperatives that formed the basis of the ‘welfare state’: first, the principle of universal provision across the territory of the state, and second, that the delivery of public services should be accountable to elected representatives in either local or national government. While the voluntary sector never entirely withdrew from involvement with public services, its activities largely became confined to more peripheral functions, such as auxiliary support (for example, meals on wheels services), additional fundraising (for example, by hospital leagues of friends), and, increasingly, advocacy activities on behalf of marginalised groups (Brenton, 1985; Deakin, 1995).

The re-engagement of the voluntary sector from the 1980s onwards was initiated as part of a wider restructuring of the state under the Thatcher government.