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A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2000

Theda Skocpol ,
Marshall Ganz  and
Ziad Munson
Theda Skocpol
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Marshall Ganz
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Ziad Munson
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Abstract

We challenge the widely held view that classic American voluntary groups were tiny, local, and disconnected from government. Using newly collected data to develop a theoretically framed account, we show that membership associations emerged early in U.S. history and converged toward the institutional form of the representatively governed federation. This form enabled leaders and members to spread interconnected groups across an expanding nation. At the height of local proliferation, most voluntary groups were part of regional or national federations that mirrored the structure of U.S. government. Institutionalist theories suggest reasons for this parallelism, which belies the rigid dichotomy between state and civil society that informs much current discussion of civic engagement in the United States and elsewhere.

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Articles
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American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 527 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

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