Third Sector

Third Sector:  the contribution of nonprofit and cooperative enterprises in Australia
by Mark Lyons
Allen and Unwin, 2001, 248 pages

Mark Lyons is a dedicated third sector person, he has been writing of voluntary associations in all their many guises -- nonprofits, nongovernment organisations, civil society organisations -- for a very long time.  He brings a fidelity to the study of a sector of society, which is the subject of the aspirations of the political left, right and centre.  The sector is variously lauded as the training ground of democracy, a bulwark against the state, a bulwark against capitalist excess, the net below the welfare net and more.  It is also regarded as the milieu of the lady bountiful, and of the new moral entrepreneurs -- human rights and environmental activists -- engaged in an associational revolution of global proportions.

This is why much of the book is devoted to defining and locating the third sector in Australian society.  Its extraordinary diversity -- 700, 000 organisations with a combined income of over $60 billion, employing 630, 000 workers -- makes the job of taxonomy a difficult one.  Nevertheless, Lyons manages to impose some order without collectivising beyond recognition the various activities, fields of endeavour, legal form and roles played by third sector organisations.

The heart of the book is the analysis and policy discussion, why the sector is growing in parts, declining in others.  A major source of decline is business offering services where none existed or where they were provided by government or the third sector.  Banks and superannuation funds displace mutuals;  the needs of professional sport impacts local clubs;  pubs and pokies displace social clubs;  employment services and hospitals run by nonprofits are taken over.

Lyons' major dip at politics, apart from critical comment on the impact of the GST, is his support for the view that business should operate for the community as a whole, not just shareholders.  This, combined with his view that the major challenge for the third sector is for Australians to see themselves not just as consumers, but as active citizens lies behind an otherwise benign exercise.  He is keen on the third way model, which sees government as no more than facilitator for groups, citizens and communities to work out their own solutions.  I disagree with the editorial, but there are few better qualified than Lyons to state it.

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