THE ROLE OF THE THIRD SECTOR IN THE NEW PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

 

The Third Sector and the Administration share the mission of working for the common good, contributing to welfare and social transformation both through the provision of services and the production of public policies.

In a moment where the common denominator of problems and challenges is their complexity, it might make sense to think that both share the challenge of moving towards organizational models that facilitate responses to new realities and social needs. As Quim Brugué points out: “Today, it is not as simple as it used to be to find a professional for every problem. (...) In situations of complexity, there is an overproduction of routines that can end up saturating the organization. On the other hand, evolution and innovation become more difficult.”

Brief Evolution of Organizational Models in Public Administration and the Third Sector

In the realm of Public Administration, a theoretical framework of how organizational models have evolved and where they are headed could be as follows:

-        Traditional Bureaucratic Model (late 19th century to mid-20th century): Weberian administration, characterized by rationality, a well-defined hierarchy, clear rules and procedures, and impersonality in decision-making. Its goal is to maximize competition and efficiency through norms.

-        New Public Management (late 20th century to present): Characterized by a more managerial approach, oriented towards greater efficiency, results, accountability, performance evaluation, and management by objectives. Managers must not only administer but also create public value.

-        New Public Governance (late 20th century to present): Characterized by a more horizontal, decentralized, and collaborative model, where the Third Sector, public sector, private sector, and citizens must play a more active role in the production, management, and decision-making of public policies.

-        Deliberative Public Administration (late 20th century to present): Focuses on involving citizens in decision-making through consensus, as well as legitimizing the decisions made, based on the premise that society to be intervened in comprises the citizens themselves outside the administration. It recognizes the growing complexity and diversity of society and seeks ways to do things differently. Some underlying principles include “from authority to trust (...) and from direction to mediation” (Q. Brugué, 2005).

Both New Public Governance and Deliberative Public Administration share, among other characteristics, democratic values in organizational dynamics, leaning towards more horizontal and decentralized models as opposed to more hierarchical and rigid models. They rely on collective decision-making to arrive at richer, more creative, and inclusive responses to complexity.

In the realm of the Third Sector, a theoretical framework of how organizational models have evolved and where they are headed could be as follows:

-        Models with informal structures (mid-20th century): Born from social initiatives, families, based on volunteering and charity, with a welfare-oriented focus, supported by private funding and often closely linked to religious institutions.

-        Models of professionalization and cooperation with the State (mid to late 20th century): More formal and hierarchical structures, beginning to specialize in more technical areas, advancing in professionalization, supported by a mixed public-private funding model.

-        Managerial Models (late 20th century to present): Organizations in the Third Sector adopt practices from the private sector, models oriented towards efficiency, results-based management, and accountability. They are likely also influenced by New Public Management as part of their funding depends on the public sector.

-        Participatory Models, based on democratic management and governance (present): Models that promote internal democracy and participation. With a less rigid hierarchical structure, they are thus more horizontal models. They seek to respond to complex problems and improve care for individuals. To do so, they promote collective and multidisciplinary knowledge, decentralizing power to advance shared decision-making at the level of the organization that will be primarily impacted by the decision.

These models must contribute to and facilitate the co-production of public policies, promote social innovation, and therefore must help advance towards New Public Governance.

What is the value of the Third Sector in the co-production of public policies and what can it contribute to New Public Governance?

The Third Sector has a set of characteristics that are its main value in the co-production of public policies. Some of these include:

-        Rootedness in the territory.

-        They are community organizations.

-        Proximity, and therefore close knowledge, of the people they serve.

-        Capacity to generate knowledge through practical development of their activity.

-        They have an ADN/vocation for political incidence to transform and improve people's welfare.

-        More flexible and participative organizations internally.

-        With the capacity to innovate by obtaining and applying more and better knowledge in the intervention area.

-        Capacity to see, foresee, and anticipate new social needs and complexities emerging in the present.

Where should organizational models of the Third Sector advance to add value to the co-production of public policies? From theory to practice

Keeping in mind the differential value of the Third Sector, it would make sense for it to advance towards organizational models that facilitate this value contribution to the co-production of policies.

We cannot "settle" solely for models focused on service provision, efficiency, results, order, and control... we must move towards models that facilitate the deployment of the Third Sector's differential value. These are participatory, flexible models based on democratic management and governance.

Advancing towards these types of models is not straightforward due to a lack of experience and reference organizations.

At the same time, these are models that require a change in organizational culture: most people and organizations have a “operating system” installed from many years, with dynamics, results, and expected objectives... and changing a culture doesn’t happen overnight.

Part of this cultural change also involves a change in leadership styles:

This translates into moving from rigid, often individualistic leaderships, confident in themselves and their ideas, presuming that as one occupies a higher position in the hierarchy, they have more knowledge to solve problems, to facilitating leaderships that recognize the different types of knowledge that must contribute to the generation of collective knowledge, that help to develop the people around them. Leaderships that advance in building organizations where the position individuals occupy in the hierarchy determines their area of competence and responsibility, but not power over others. Moving from an exercise of “power over” to “power for.”

It’s worth noting that there are already organizations that are advancing towards this paradigm shift in organizational models, and I can affirm that when they begin to unfold with their full potential, people, teams, and organizations start to flourish.

Some specific assessments of working with more participatory models are: “people feel more involved in the project,” “these models humanize management,” “they contribute to better serve the people we assist,” “they help to resolve issues that have existed for too long,” “we have gained flexibility,” “people are listened to more and care is taken of workers,” “they increase innovative initiatives throughout the organization”...

What should be the role of the Administration in facilitating the value contribution of the Third Sector in New Public Governance?

The Third Sector and Public Administration are interdependent, relying mutually on one another: the Administration depends on the Third Sector for providing services to people in situations of vulnerability or risk. However, it should not only need/expect the Third Sector to provide services. The role of the Third Sector has always also been one of political incidence, working for the recognition of rights and contributing to social transformation. In New Public Governance, the Third Sector is a key agent in the co-production of public policies.

We see that from the Third Sector, it would make sense to move towards more participatory, agile, and flexible models. However, the models adopted by organizations do not only depend on their internal will; they are also conditioned by the circumstances of the environment they relate to.

We find some academic studies suggesting that outsourcing services to the Third Sector under the New Public Management paradigm, focused on reducing costs, maximizing profitability, competitive bidding and contracts, emphasizing the achievement of indicators and performance, and lacking stable financing... may push the Third Sector to develop more managerial organizational models that could conflict with more community-oriented working formulas and more participatory organizational models. As we have seen, this could go against protecting and enhancing the Third Sector's own differential values in the co-production of public policies.

Thus, if the Third Sector is to be a key agent contributing its differential values within the framework of New Public Governance... we might ask ourselves: should the Administration advance in reconsidering certain planning, regulations, legal frameworks, and funding models so that organizations are not so constrained to work under managerial and competitive models and can advance towards developing more participatory organizational models based on democratic management and governance?

Recapitulating:

Given the interrelationship of the Administration and the Third Sector, their organizational models have evolved over the last century and a half, and in some aspects, they seem to run in parallel.

We find ourselves at a moment where the social complexity we live in requires innovative, complex, agile, co-designed, co-produced, and shared intervention responses.

It would be interesting, therefore, for the Administration and the Third Sector to advance both in parallel and together, being aware of the interrelationship of both organizations.

It could be interesting to reconsider certain regulations, legal frameworks, and funding models with the Third Sector so that it does not need to adopt purely managerial models and can deploy participatory and democratic organizational models that contribute to reinforcing its differential values, thereby contributing as a key agent with all its potential to New Public Governance.

In this scenario, it would be interesting for both the Administration and the Third Sector to mutually demand this transformation, as if we advance down this path, I dare to say that we will see results we could never have imagined.

 Image of Cindyig a pexels 

_____________________________________________________________________

INSPIRATIONAL READINGS

Brugué, Q. et al. (2005). Democratitzar l'Administració. Lideratge i institucions públiques deliberatives.

Manent, A. Fantova F (2021) Governança participativa per a la innovació social https://lleiengel.cat/governanca-participativa-innovacio-social/

McMullin, C. (2023). The persistent constraints of new public management on sustainable co-production between non-profit professionals and service users. Administrative Sciences, 13(2), 37.