Introduction: changing approaches to advocacy

Successive United Kingdom (UK) governments have increasingly turned to the voluntary and community sector to not only deliver welfare provision, but also to address concerns about civic and civil participation. Consequently, understanding the role of voluntary sector (VS) advocacy in addressing such concerns has assumed greater importance. The coalition government's Big Society agenda has arguably accelerated this ‘community turn’ in policy, re-emphasising responsibilities associated with active citizenship and local schemes mobilising voluntary action. However, contradictions and challenges are apparent: resource dependency and increased professionalisation among many voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) have affected the kinds of advocacy tactics adopted (Mosley, 2011) and the maintenance of independent approaches. At a time of significant reductions in public funding, increased competition for resources and a context where policy governance is progressively dominated by neoliberal ideology, the challenges for advocacy are becoming more marked.

Advocacy distinguishes the goals of many VSOs from those of organisations in other sectors, and VSOs play an important role as intermediaries between citizens and the state, representing diverse communities of interest and enabling pluralism of expression (Boris, 2006; Bass, 2007; Smith and Pekkanen, 2012). Understanding VSOs in this way assumes that they are political organisations to some degree, even though their advocacy activities may be limited by capacity, law or concern about alienating relationships with funders. However, as VS survival becomes harder, questions arise about sustaining VS advocacy and social change roles, which have traditionally constituted an important contribution to civil society and democracy in liberal democratic countries worldwide (Phillips, 2006). Chapter One considered the longstanding roles of VSOs in the UK as both service providers and advocates. While many VSOs combine these roles, others have focused primarily on campaigning. This chapter considers changing roles and activities in VS advocacy, together with inherent contradictions and challenges as dominant government and governance cultures shift. Concepts including resource dependency theory (Pfeffer, 2003) and new institutionalism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991) (discussed in previous chapters) underpin debates through which these changes are examined, prompting questions about the extent to which changes are infringing VS independence.

Research suggests that the predominantly neoliberal political and economic environments in Western democracies are marginalising the legitimate participation of VSOs (and others in civil society) in influencing policy (Onyx et al, 2010).