Non profit Organisations and the Delivery of Services of General Interest: Legal Innovations and New Public Responsibilities. A Comparative Overview

• In Event: Hybridity, Legitimacy and the Third Sector V

Abstract

Non profit organisations and the delivery of services of general interest: legal innovations and new public responsibilities. A comparative overview/
Prof. Alceste Santuari, University of Bologna, Italy
Prof. Hadara Bar-Mor, Netanya Academic College, Israel




The paradigm of "new public management" aimed at harnessing the mechanisms of market efficiency and competition for the benefit of public services. The exclusivity of the state in supplying services has slipped, and has been replaced by the business sector and the third sector as legitimate suppliers of service – which by means of competition between them are supposed to bring better service to citizens.

Flows in the realization of this paradigm promoted the establishment of the New Public Government and one of its main principles is the inclusive policy process according to which the process of design and provision of public service should be based on collaboration among wide range of relevant players. They are governmental agencies but also private and third sector agencies. (Osborne, Radnor & Nasi, 2013)

The main aspect of the administrative process described above is the change of the role of the state. While previously both the design and the delivery of services were under the responsibility of the government agencies, today a new division of labor has been created, according to which the duty of the Government is to legislate, determine standards to service programs, to finance, to monitor and control, while the role of non-governmental organizations is to provide the services.

However, as far as services of general interest are concerned, these are not fully subject to privatization. In fact, nonprofits and social enterprises have progressively become partners of governments, especially at the local level, not only in the delivery of health care services but also in their programming and organization. (Helen Dickinson, 2016)

New public-private non-profit partnerships models have arisen whereby public agencies are called upon to define and implement innovative legal and organizational solutions to match citizens’ needs.
For instance: which legal regime should be applied on these service providers? Is the application of human rights` laws differs between non-profit service providers and public authorities?

Against this background, the paper is aimed to compare the role of the third sector in supplying welfare services in Israel and in Italy, especially underlining the function of public regulation and human rights legislation.

References:
Osborne, Radnor & Nasi, A New Theory for Public Management? Toward a (Public) Service-Dominant Approach, The American Review of Public Administration 43(2):135-158 · March 2013

Helen Dickinson, From New Public Management to New Public Governance: The implications for a ‘new public service’, in The Three Sector Solution: Delivering public policy in collaboration with not-for-profits and business, edited by John Butcher and David Gilchrist, published 2016 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Authors

• Hadara Bar-Mor, Netanya Academic College

• Alceste Santuari, Bologna University