The voluntary welfare associations in Germany: An overview



26

3. Conclusions

The voluntary welfare associations are facing a challenging process of finding their
role
75:

The voluntary welfare associations have lost their traditional and privileged role in
corporatism without having found their new lasting role in the developing field of wel-
fare market yet.

Their challenge still remains in maintaining a leading position as provider of social
welfare and services under increasingly competitive and market-oriented conditions
without giving up the historically grown identity and their lobbying function for persons
in need.

The chances to maintain the leading role in the sector of social services and health
which are expected to belong to the growing economic branches76 are still good: The
voluntary welfare associations have a lot of
comparative advantages at their disposal:

well equipped establishments,

highly educated employees,

motivated volunteers,

high level of cooperation among the voluntary welfare associations77 and

a high recognition in public.

But: They are losing members like other big organizations and the former sense of af-
filiation to the central organizations is vanishing more and more. Therefore the volun-
tary welfare associations have to undertake all
efforts to develop the high potential of
self-help and societal commitment for their tasks by overcoming the dual structure of
the Third Sector, if they want to maintain their leading role in the sector of social ser-
vices and health.78 And they have to become the
main trendsetter in the field of social
welfare and services, e. g. in the process of demographic change they have to take up
actively the increasing demands of elderly persons in need of permanent nurse and care.

Taking the financial situation of the state in the foreseeable future into account the
chances of the voluntary welfare associations as providers of social welfare and services
might even become higher. It is more likely that under these circumstances state run
services will be increasingly substituted by privately organized and more flexible ser-
vices.

It is very likely that the high dependency from the state and its financial resources will
remain in the foreseeable future. Notwithstanding the market financed share of financ-

75 See very detailed to the future of voluntary welfare associations: Klug 1997: 225 ff.

76 Priller/Zimmer 2001: 222.

77Dahme/ Wohlfahrt 2000: 20-24.

78 Zimmer/Priller 1997: 264, 272. See to the dual structure of the Third sector: Priller/Zimmer 2001: 222.



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