Civil society organizations only started to be considered a sector in the 1970s in the United States. Amitai Etzioni pioneered the use of the expression third sector, which became common in academic and political literature. However, in the United States, the non-profit sector concept gradually became more robust and was spread internationally based on the studies conducted by Lester Salomon and associated researchers. The theory built on the concept of the non-profit sector is strongly related to the North American cultural context, marked by the tradition of philanthropy and volunteerism, but with little importance given to associative and cooperative organizations. The non-profit sector is implicitly or explicitly conceived as part of the private sphere. In contrast, theoretical currents such as liberal communitarianism, the theories of cooperation, common goods, social capital, European social economy, and the Latin American solidarity economy highlight the primacy of cooperation in solving collective problems. These theories underpin the associative approach of the third sector and link it to the community, not to the market. This paper argues that the associative approach is more appropriate for international studies on the third sector and the relevance of self-organization. The third sector, i.e., the set of organizations created and maintained by civil society, is the inheritor of the millennial associative tradition, including both entities whose values are compatible with the common good and those with particularistic values, authoritarian and contrary to human rights. The third sector is not entirely virtuous, but it is a vital sector for solving great human problems.

No abstract available.

Is there a Decline of Democracy? Democracy measurement provides the basis for answering this question. However, there are different measurement tools based on different meanings of democracy that have been shown to vary in their concept validity. Therefore, it is relevant to examine whether the results of the different measurement tools converge or diverge with respect to a potential decline of democracy. Smolka (2021) finds a decline of democracy for new and old EU states based on standardized data from the Democracy Barometer. A re-analysis using the original data of the Democracy Barometer and the Democracy Matrix can hardly replicate these results. A comparison of further measurements shows that the instruments diverge rather than converge. I therefore conclude with some thoughts on overcoming the selection problem that arises in light of these contrasts.

Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über die bisher noch kaum evaluierte Wirkung arbeitsmarktzentrierter Integrationsmaßnahmen auf die Arbeitsmarkintegration von Geflüchteten in Deutschland. Dazu wird, mit theoretischer Fundierung durch neoklassische (Humankapital- und Signaling-Theorie) sowie institutionelle (Akteurzentrierter Institutionalismus) Ansätze, eine Sekundärdatenanalyse auf Basis der ersten drei Befragungswellen der IAB-BAMF-SOEP-Befragung von Geflüchteten durchgeführt. Methodische Grundlage der Untersuchung stellt eine Fixed-Effects-Logit-Regression dar, mit welcher durch die Kontrolle unbeobachteter Heterogenität präzise Within-Schätzungen kausaler Zusammenhänge ermöglicht werden. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass sowohl die Wahrnehmung des arbeitsmarktzentrierten Beratungsangebots (Arbeitsmarktberatung der BA) als auch die Teilnahme an dem berufsbezogenen Sprachförderkurs (ESF-BAMF-Kurs) eine kausal positive Wirkung auf die Arbeitsmarktintegration aufweist. Ebenso geht aus den Analysen hervor, dass es die Wirkungsevaluation praxisorientierter Integrationsmaßnahmen (PerF, PerjuF, PerF-W und KompAS) aufgrund einer bis dato unzureichenden Datenlage zu vertagen gilt. Dennoch konnten somit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zwei hochwirksame arbeitsmarktzentrierte Maßnahmen identifiziert werden, mit welchen den Geflüchteten eine solide Integrationsbasis für den Arbeitsmarkt und damit auch für die Aufnahmegesellschaft bereitgestellt wird. Ein verstärkter Einsatz der Maß-nahmen sowie eine gezielte Förderung erscheinen insbesondere im Hinblick auf die mannigfaltigen Vorteile gelungener Integration anstrebenswert.

The Vacaciones en Paz programme (VeP) started in 1979 shortly after Morocco illegally occupied Western Sahara, which since 1975 has been a disputed territory pending a referendum for self-determination. The programme consists of Sahrawi children being hosted during summer by Spanish families who try to raise awareness for the Sahrawi cause and temporarily alleviate the children’s living conditions. Meanwhile, approximately 170,000 Sahrawi refugees live in camps near Tindouf (Algeria) heavily dependent on humanitarian aid for their survival. This study aimed to determine the impact of the VeP programme on the promotion of children’s rights based on the perspective of Sahrawi children. Research has shown that it serves as a temporary platform to implement some of those rights. This qualitative study is based on a literature review of the principles of the VeP programme, alongside a thematic analysis of the field data provided by Sahrawi children and teenagers. Analysis of the VeP programme demonstrated that the Convention of the Rights of the Child is not mentioned in its discourse. Notwithstanding, the results indicate an impact on the promotion of Sahrawi children’s rights. On this basis, it is recommended to implement a children’s rights-based discourse within the principles of the VeP programme, since the theoretical knowledge of their rights may be a key factor for strategic empowerment of Sahrawi children and teenagers in their representation of the Sahrawi cause.