"The Big Society", Public Expenditure, and Volunteering

The debate on volunteering has paid insufficient attention to the relationship between public spending and volunteering. Recently, the importance of this relationship was highlighted by the current British government's "Big Society" plan, which asserts that withdrawing public agencies and spending will be compensated by an increase in volunteering. This idea is based on the widely held belief that a high degree of government intervention decreases voluntary activities. This paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to develop a more refined understanding of how public spending affects the decision to volunteer. A theoretical model conceptualizes this relationship in terms of time donation by employed individuals. The model is empirically developed through an econometric analysis of two survey data sets and interpretative analysis of narratives of local volunteers and public professionals. The results suggest that volunteering is likely to decline when government intervention is decreased and recommend a collaborative approach to sustaining volunteering.