The Role Of The British Government In Philanthropy Has Changed Since Modern Times

Charity activity has a centuries-old history in the UK,and the charity industry still shows a tendency of growth in British today.After more than 400 years of development,British charity has formed the public service system which includes private charities as the main body,public service as major works,and voluntary participation as the main features.British modern charity has run to a fairly mature stage,and get a lot of attention because of its high popularity and spontaneity.In the development of charity in the UK,especially in modern times,the government and its subordinate agencies play a significant role in promoting and perfecting the effective legal provisions,capital regulation,the professional standards of participators and the unique relationship between government and charity organizations.Throughout its long development process,the fully developed modern charity in the UK is not accomplished overnight.With the factors such as development of social form,the change of social problems and thought,the government's own changes and so on,the government's attitude to the social charity showing a tortuous development context.This paper focuses on the position and transformation of the role that the government has played in social charity.The reason,the concrete manifestation and the influence of the government's attitude towards charity in modern times are discussed in three stages separately.The first stage is from the mid 16 th Century to the 18 th Century.Facing a series of social problems and social movements in the period of transition of British society,the attitude and policies of the government towards the relief of poverty changed which could be shown in the establishment of Poor Law,Royal Hospitals and Poor Tax and promoted the development of charity.The role of the British Government in Charity changed from the Spectator to the Participant in this process.In the second stage,which from the early 19 th century to the 1980 s,the government changed its attitude to the relief of poverty again facing the flowering of free economy,laissez-faire social currents and growing private charity.The government restricted the standard of poor relief to improve its efficiency and paid more attention to its good relationship with charity.In this stage,the government treated the charity in a laissez-faire way and acted as the participant at first and the laissez-faire manager in the end.The third stage is from the beginning of the twentieth century to now.As the appearance of new social economy,social currents and perception of charity,the relationship between the British government and the private charities changes again: both sides gradually established the partnership.British government kept emphasizing its serviceability to Charity industry by a series of actionswhich include supporting umbrella organizations,perfecting welfare system,signing the COMPACT with voluntary organizations and etc.The role of the government changes from a laissez-faire managers to a co-manager and supervisor.The constant changes of the role of the British government have an active effect to the development of British Charity and are in great importance in the forming and improving of the pluralist and efficient British Charity industry.