Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Garton, Jonathan --- "The Future of Civil Society Organisations: Towards a Theory of Regulation for Organised Civil Society" [2010] ELECD 679; in McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry (eds), "Modernising Charity Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Modernising Charity Law

Editor(s): McGregor-Lowndes, Myles; O’Halloran, Kerry

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849802505

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Future of Civil Society Organisations: Towards a Theory of Regulation for Organised Civil Society

Author(s): Garton, Jonathan

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

9. The future of civil society
organisations: towards a theory of
regulation for organised civil society
Jonathan Garton1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is a consideration of some rudimentary justifications for the
state regulation of organised civil society as a cohesive economic sector.
Despite flourishing bodies of literature on both civil society and regula-
tion, such justifications have hitherto been largely overlooked, as there
is little interaction between these disciplines, and it is particularly telling
that the recent attempts to reform charity regulation which have taken
place across much of the common law world have all been made on the
assumption that regulation of organised civil society ­ specifically, regula-
tion of the charitable sector ­ is justified. None of the bodies charged with
drafting reform proposals in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New
Zealand, Northern Ireland or Scotland, in their published findings at least,
stepped back to consider whether this is indeed the case: the need for regu-
lation was assumed, and all that was considered was the form that regula-
tion should take. Yet this is an issue of the utmost importance given the
scale of the sector and the nature of civil society activity. In Australia, for
example, there are an estimated 700 000 nonprofit organisations, employ-
ing 604 000 people,2 and nonprofits with paid workforces have a combined
income in the region of $33.5 billion, a figure rivalling both the com-
munications and agriculture industries.3 Given the significant economic
contributions made by civil society organisations (CSOs), and the ...