On The Relationship Between Voluntary Service Organizations And The Government

Voluntary service, as a kind of virtuous conduct, is of great significance. Voluntary-service organizations play active roles in providing public services, promoting social security, maintaining social stability, as well as in helping the weak and the poor, and establishing civic morality. However, the development of voluntary services is not very smooth. Voluntary service in China appears later than that does in western countries, and thus it is still at a comparatively lower level. Under the environment of social reformations in China, voluntary services are faced with a lot of trouble. The large amount of problems severely restricts the development of China's voluntary-service organizations. As every step in progress needs some theoretical guidance, at present, it is quite pressing and necessary to examine the organizations of voluntary services.Along with the rapid development of voluntary services, the studies on voluntary-service organizations are attached more and more importance in the academic field. In the studies abroad, voluntary-service organizations are viewed no longer as complements to the government's functions, but as independent departments. Researchers begin to explore how to improve the relationships between government, market and voluntary-service organizations, in order to make the three operate better. Studies in China on this topic also have certain achievements, but compared with the western accomplishments, we still have a long way to go. Most studies on the relationship between voluntary-service organizations and the government are too general, lacking theoretical research. As a result, the designs for the development of China's voluntary-service organizations are not so persuasive.To make voluntary-service organizations' positions and their relationship with the government clear is the base of studying voluntary services and a necessary way to explore the development of voluntary services. The present study is carried on from the angle of optimizing the distributions of resources, and to discuss voluntary-service organizations' position, as well as their relationship with the government and the market. The thesis first talks about the position of voluntary-service organizations. In the second step, the author designs a model of relationship between government and voluntary-service organizations, which contains eight patterns, by introducing the variables of "ability" and "consistency of policies". As for what determines the relationship between the two, the thesis discusses government's choice and society's choice. Examples from the US, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong are investigated in exploring the different relation-models caused by different choice-models.The following part of the thesis analyzes the problems facing the development of China's voluntary-service organizations through discussing their status quo and government's administrative system of voluntary services. On this basis, the author designs the relationship between Chinese government and voluntary-service organizations in the future, and explores the approach to realize this sort of relationship.