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Philanthropy's Function: A Neo-Classical Reconsideration, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Philanthropy's Function: A Neo-Classical Reconsideration, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
This essay lays the groundwork for a “new unified field theory” of philanthropy. That theory must have two complementary parts, an account of philanthropy’s core function and a measure of its performance, a metric for comparing philanthropic organizations both among themselves and with their counterparts in the for-profit, governmental, and household sectors. The essay first explains the need for such a measure, in both theory and practice. It then considers the critical shortcomings of today’s standard theory of philanthropy, which accounts for the philanthropic sector as subordinate and supplementary to our capitalist market economy and liberal democratic polity. Chief among …
Re-Focusing On Philanthropy: Revising And Re-Orienting The Standard Model, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Re-Focusing On Philanthropy: Revising And Re-Orienting The Standard Model, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of today’s standard theory of the philanthropic sector, in order to provide a new model that is both more accurate in its details and more comprehensive in its scope. The standard theory accounts for the philanthropic sector as subordinate and supplementary to our capitalist market economy and liberal democratic polity. That approach has two basic short-comings: Its explanation of both the state and philanthropy as adjuncts to the market fails to appreciate the ways in which all three sectors support and supplement each other. Even more basically, the standard model’s primary focus on the …
Philanthropy's Future: Questioning Today's Orthodoxies, Re-Affirming Yesterday's Foundations, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Philanthropy's Future: Questioning Today's Orthodoxies, Re-Affirming Yesterday's Foundations, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
Robert E. Atkinson Jr.
This article maps a way beyond an impasse in today’s treatment of philanthropy in both theory and law by taking us back to philanthropy’s core function, uplifting our neediest and advancing our best. The standard academic model of philanthropy sees it as subordinate and supplemental to our society’s other public sectors, the market and the state, and uses their metrics, aggregate consumer demand and majority voter preference, to measure philanthropy’s performance. Thus the standard model gives us, as individuals and as a society, no single measure of philanthropy’s traditional goal, the public good, besides consumer and voter preference. This article …