Every day, millions of people perform a myriad of services in their communities for free. They might look after the elderly, clean parks, or risk their lives to put out a fire in a neighbor's house. These volunteers form the core of civil society, the organized element of society that lies between the family and the government. As such, they not only play an invaluable role in preserving and protecting their communities but, by acting as channels of communication with the government, also help keep democracies accountable to their publics.

Thus far, studies of comparative civil society have used three general approaches to explain why some communities or countries have much higher volunteer participation rates than others. They have examined how individual characteristics, such as education or income, increase the likelihood of individuals to volunteer; how social characteristics, such as levels of trust and social capital in a community, shape levels of volunteering; and how characteristics of government, such as levels of spending on social services, influence volunteer participation rates. All of these approaches have given us greater insights into volunteer behavior, but none of them can explain why volunteering is widespread in some communities whereas in others only a select few participate. Current approaches also cannot explain why one community might volunteer for organizations that work closely with their local governments, such as neighborhood associations or volunteer fire departments, whereas another might concentrate its resources on advocacy or service organizations that tend to avoid significant government involvement.