Civil Society and the Professions in Eastern Europe: Social Change and Organizational Innovation in Poland - Book Review

Administrative Science Quarterly,  Sept, 2002  by Mayer N. Zald

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S. Wojciech Sokolowski. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2001. 259 PP. $65.00.

In the last two decades, there has been an enormous growth of interest in the study of the nonprofit sector. The growth of interest has several sources, but one important source is the recognition that the nonprofit sector (also sometimes called the third sector, the independent sector, the non-governmental sector, etc.) has been growing. As philanthropic giving increases, as governments shed and outsource what had previously been governmental functions, and as people recognize the utility of a form of organization that is neither for-profit nor fully publicly owned and operated, the sector has burgeoned.

In some cases, the growth of the sector and the study of it occurs in nations, such as the United States, that have long had a tradition of voluntary associations and nonprofit, non-governmental service-providing organizations (NGOs). In other cases, the sector is growing and taking on unique characteristics in states that have neither permitted nor facilitated private markets and transactions or nonprofit organizations. Studies of the sector in countries that have not had much of a third sector are much to be desired, because much less is known about them. Moreover, examining the development of nonprofits where they previously had not existed can shed much light on the utility and limits of theories and research based on organizations with well-established nonprofit sectors.

Sokolowski's book, Civil Society and the Professions in Eastern Europe, is welcome for at least two reasons. First, because of Sokolowski's deep engagement in and knowledge of Eastern Europe, he is able to present a nuanced account of the development of the sector, how it differs from that in other Eastern European countries, and how its development challenges the conventional wisdom about the sector that has been widely held by Western commentators. Second, and most important for readers of ASQ, his research led him to challenge and rethink the major theories of the sector, largely stemming from economics, and develop an actor- or entrepreneur-focused approach that is very promising. The book draws on several sources of data--historical documents and accounts, a large census/survey of nonprofit organizations that were thought to have existed shortly after the fall of the communist regime (the KLON/JAWOR survey of NGOs believed to be in existence in 1992), and intensive interviews with participants in a small number of organizations.

Sokolowski draws on historical documents and data sources that allow him to describe the operation of the sector before the demise of the communist regime in Poland. There was a nonprofit and voluntary sector, but it operated as an extension of state policy. When an organization or type of voluntary organization operated at cross-purposes to the paternalistic dictates of the state, they were forbidden or eliminated.

For instance, philanthropic foundations were abandoned, and human rights organizations were forbidden. Leagues and clubs for sports and cultural affairs were permitted. Workers councils and organizations sometimes flourished and acted as conduits for state policy. Similarly, youth organizations were encouraged. There were few service organizations of a nonprofit nature, except for some sponsored by religious groups. Although many associations were seemingly separate from the state, they actually operated as extensions of state policy and in the shadow of state control. The book presents quantitative data on the numbers of members of a variety of professional and other associations and organizations from the 1950s until 1990. Sokolowski also pays brief attention to the similarities and differences of societal history and of the nonprofit sector in other East European nations. He also notes that Polish intellectuals and professionals had contact with and knew what was happening in the development of organizatio nal forms in the U.S. and Europe, thus knowledge of alternative models was available that could be drawn upon, once the limits on organizational forms were changed.

Sokolowski demonstrates that the development of the nonprofit sector has to be seen as part of a continuous process of social, professional and, economic development occurring in Poland before the demise of the regime in 1989. But there was a surge in the creation of new voluntary and nonprofit organizations after its collapse. Sokolowski had expected many of these to be founded by professionals and groups connected to the Solidarity movement, a kind of organizational outgrowth of Solidarity's anti-state orientation. Much to his surprise, groups related to Solidarity played a very small role in the founding of new organizations. Even more surprising, the KLON data revealed that a predominance of the new nonprofit organizations that offered some kind of service were in the health sector. Pre-1989, Poland had a well developed governmentally owned and controlled health system. Post-1989, professionals dissatisfied with their professional opportunities and the quality and range of services offered could have swit ched to a profit-making form. Instead, there was a surge in the development of nonprofit clinics and service organizations. Much of Sokolowski's book is devoted to rethinking the theory of nonprofits and exploring how his theory accounts for how the nonprofit form solves the asymmetric information situation found in professional/client/funder relations in the health sector.