Abstract

In this paper we compare the organisational and role changes which have taken place among non-profit organisations working in the field of personal social services in Western European countries during the different phases of the Welfare State. The main hypothesis of the research is that to understand the changes and the development of non-profit organisations it should be used an approach which emphasises in the explanation their social and political embeddedness. It is argued that in the field of personal social services there is a convergence in the 90's among the policies toward nonprofits and the organisational characteristics of this kind of organisations. There is also a partial convergence in the role played by these organisations in the Welfare System, although the convergence in this case is moderated by the different welfare institutional settings developed by the different countries during the last decades.