Date of Award

1-1-2011

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Sociology

Content Description

1 online resource (xiii, 269 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Gwen Moore

Committee Members

Larry E Raffalovich, Richard Lachmann, R. Karl Rethemeyer

Keywords

democracy, elites, interlocking directorates, nonprofit, power, social networks, Elite (Social sciences), Nonprofit organizations, Social structure

Subject Categories

Organizational Behavior and Theory | Public Policy | Sociology

Abstract

Research on the structure and distribution of power in the United States has focused mostly on the relative power of business, and has largely neglected the nonprofit sector. This is despite evidence that points to the emergence and growth of large-scale, bureaucratic, and elite-led nonprofit organizations. When the political role of the nonprofit sector has been examined, it has come predominantly from two sets of literature: the civic engagement/social capital tradition or the interest group tradition. I argue that both sets of literature, however, start with faulty assumptions about the nature of power and politics, and thereby fail to situate large, national nonprofit organizations within the overall structure of power.

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