Private voluntary organizations and the state: International relief, food aid, and health and nutrition

American Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) have been playing an increasingly greater role in international assistance and relief to developing countries. As nonprofit organizations, PVOs also form part of the "independent" sector in modern states, that is that sector situated between the market and the state. In particular, the claim is often made that PVOs constitute and alternative to official U.S. foreign aid policy.;This study examines this claim by looking at the growth of nonprofit organizations in relation to the expansion of the welfare state, and the growth of PVOs in relation to foreign aid policy, with a more specific focus on food aid. Data from a mail survey of PVOs involved in the fields of relief, food aid, and health and nutrition, are used to establish associations between PVOs' sources of support, mission objectives, and various organizational characteristics.;The study's findings question the validity of conceptualizing PVOs (and nonprofit organizations in general) as "alternative" to the state and market sectors. PVOs have benefited from the expansion of the state's role in domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, their ultimate dependence on both state and private sector funding, as well as their institutionalization as channels for relief aid, prevent them from pursuing objectives contrary to state or market interests and ideology.