Voluntarism (action)

Voluntarism, sometimes referred to as voluntary action, is the principle that individuals are free to choose goals and how to achieve them within the bounds of certain societal and cultural constraints, as opposed to actions that are coerced or predetermined.^[1] The term "voluntarism" is derived from Latin word "voluntary," which means 'will'. The term voluntary association is variously defined. Voluntary organizations are known by several other names: non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and so on depending on the geographic area and time period of reference. In general these organizations, regardless of terminology used, have certain characteristics; that they are non-government and non profit, that they are voluntary. The term NGO has become popular in the 1980s and 1990s and is extensively used in the field of development, where as the term "voluntary organization" had been used widely for social welfare and charity organizations. But these two terms are used interchangeably as both denote the same characteristics.

Volunteerism

Volunteer management specialist Susan J. Ellis differentiates between "voluntarism" and "volunteerism":

"Voluntarism" (the older term) refers to everything voluntary. In the United States this includes religion. It certainly encompasses the entire "voluntary sector," but "voluntary" in the "voluntarism" context means not mandated by law (as government is). Many voluntary sector (nonprofit) agencies have a volunteer board because that is a legal requirement, but may not utilize volunteers in direct service in any way. There are subjects within "voluntarism" that have nothing to do with volunteers, such as Unrelated Business Income Tax legislation, proposal writing, and compensation law.^[2]

Varieties

Leaders welcome a boy into Scouting, March 2010, Mexico City, Mexico

Voluntary provision of services to religious, civil, medical, educational, environmental and other private or governmental organizations doubtless has a long history. Such volunteer efforts keep expenses down for non-profit and philanthropic organizations, empower individuals and groups to help others, and make volunteers feel needed.^[3]

Voluntarism flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries and was empowering especially to the women who had been excluded from political participation outside the home. Women's organizations dealt with social problems created by rapid industrialization and urbanization, and by massive immigration which were not addressed by institutions of the time and had a great influence on American political culture.^[4]

Voluntarism is also used to describe non-coercive methods of recruiting soldiers, from participants in European and American military service to youthful combatants in civil war in Sierra Leone.^[5]

Voluntarism has been a phrase used in labor relations. In Britain, it means the state refrains from directly intervening in industrial relations.^[6] In the early American labor movement it meant trade unions should focus on "pure and simple" gains in wages and working conditions and not independent labor politics and industrial unionism.^[7]

In his book Willful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice, Johns Hopkins University political science professor Richard E. Flathman argues that liberals must understand more about individuality and self-reliance and self-responsibility and therefore be more open of acceptance of voluntary action and less concerned with ordering political society. He notes, "Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations," which he describes as "of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive".^[8]

In sociology, voluntarism is an important aspect of the action theory of Talcott Parsons, as well as other theories of social action and agency.

Voluntaryists, free market advocates, libertarians and anarchists call for voluntary efforts to replace most or all government efforts, using both moral and utilitarian arguments.^[9]

See also

• Structure and agency
• Symbolic interactionism
• Virtual volunteering

References

External links

• Landscapes of voluntarism, New spaces of health, welfare and governance, Christine Milligan and David Conradson, editors.
• Sidney Verba; Kay Lehman Schlozman; Henry E. Brady (1995). Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674942936. https://books.google.com/books?id=YFiCO5f0BKAC&q=voluntarism. 
• "Documentary History of Philanthropy and Voluntarism in the United States, 1600–1900". John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/dochistcontents.html. 
• Peter Dobkin Hall (2003). "Benjamin Franklin and the Origins of Secular Voluntarism". John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/10.%20Franklin.pdf. 

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