In the task of building civil society in the former Soviet area, what role can Americans play? Perhaps the most underutilized resource our society has to offer the people of the newly independent states (NIS) lies in what is sometimes called "the third sector" or "independent sector": the aggregation of voluntary associations and organizations that, together with enterprises and religious institutions, define pluralism in our democracy. The reasons to focus on the international role of America's independent sector are principally five:

The U. S. has a major comparative advantage in voluntary associations.

In no other country of the world are there so many associations and organizations, with such great varieties of functions, size and influence. On the basis of IRS data, it is estimated that there are over one million private, tax-exempt, nonprofit entities in the U.S. These include trade associations, labor unions, public interest and advocacy groups, employee benefit organizations, and many others.

But this number understates the true size of our "third sector." Many organizations are counted as one but have hundreds, or even thousands, of branch organizations. Also, the number one million does not include hundreds of thousands of churches and rel igious organizations that are not required to register with the IRS, as well many thousands of unincorporated groups, clubs and associations.

What is the significance for our national economy of the so-called third sector? According to Independent Sector, an organization in Washington, DC, that researches the field of nonprofits, these organizations not only put millions of volunteers to work; they also provide paid employment to more than 9 million people--nearly 7% of the U. S. work force. Their combined expenditures--for salaries, services, investment, etc.--amounted to $389 billion in 1990.

Voluntary associations are low-cost, efficient gateways to expertise in the United States.

They bypass large government bureaucracies, red tape, corruption, and political uncertainties associated with "foreign aid." For citizens of the newly independent states, the work it takes to build relationships with American PVOs has low financial costs. This is important, for per capita incomes in the NIS are very low: less than $100 monthly. For indigenous NIS voluntary organizations, finding American private voluntary organizations (PVOs) with members willing to share their expertise on a pro bono basis can be the difference between getting some help from abroad and getting none.

American organizations whose work has direct relevance to the challenges of the newly independent states number literally in the thousands, and include groups as diverse as the American Nuclear Society, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Artists and Pu blishers), National 4-H, and the Water Pollution Control Federation.

As one example of how simple contacts made through PVOs can lead to positive social change, consider the case of how Big Brother-Big Sister came to Russia.

In 1991 some Russians read in a Moscow newspaper about a recent American study documenting the positive effects of the Big Brother program on 3,300 "Little Brothers" in New York City. Before this, they had not known of the existence of the Big Brother-Big Sister program. At their own initiative, they contacted the New York City Big Brother execut ive director, who was mentioned in the story, and invited him to Moscow. After an exchange of visits, and the commitment of support from a private Russian corporation, the first Russian chapter--the 501st chapter worldwide--of Big Brother-Big Sister opened in Moscow in November 1992.

Technical aid provided through American voluntary organizations and associations is decentralized both as to sources and destinations of assistance.

It tends naturally to avoid the problem of an overconcentration of contacts between Moscow/St. Petersburg and Washington/New York, or between the U.S. and Russia only. A very great number of East-West voluntary organization relationships occur between medium-sized cities and not the national "centers." Sister city rela tionships between the U.S. and the NIS now number well over 100 and these are broadly dispersed geographically. Additionally, organizations such as Rotary, which have a very broad national base in the U.S., have carried out programs involving thousands o f Americans in cities in the Baltic states, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as many parts of Russia.

Voluntary organizations are laboratories of democracy and training grounds for orderly self-government.

Pessimists about the future of Russia and other nations in Eurasia point to the lack of a cultural basis for democracy there. They allege that a democratic future is unlikely because, for the generations alive today, there is no experience with a democratic past.

But a democratic culture can be created. If it couldn't, none of the nations considered leaders in the ranks of freedom today would ever have become democracies. All were undemocratic in a more or less distant past.

In important respects, the U.S. was not a democracy when Alexis de Tocqueville visited it in the 1830s. Yet he was amazed at the degree to which Americans associated in groups, religious, political and civic, in order to pursue common ends. As a realist, who paid as much attention to people's practices as to their words, de Tocqueville saw in such associations, perhaps even more than in our Constitution, fundamental safeguards of democracy. He later wrote:

If an American were condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his own existence; he would feel an immense void in the life which he is accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness would be unbearable. I am persua ded that if ever a despotism should be established in America, it would be more difficult to overcome the habits that freedom has formed than to conquer the love of freedom itself.

That America became more democratic over the years is due in large part to the work of voluntary associations such as those de Tocqueville observed. Further, history shows that not only Americans cherish the rights and freedoms of association. This cent ury will conclude with democracy established because of the activism of grassroots organizations in scores of nations once considered (like de Tocqueville's France itself) "historically incapable" of it.

Democracy and political stability are historical possibilities for Russia and other nations of the NIS. Is there any doubt that the citizens of these nations and their independent organizations exemplified democratic values in the principled nonviolence with which they defeated communism? Because of their success, today new generations are experiencing democracy as practice-- learning the "habits that freedom forms"--in the work of myriad voluntary organiza-tions and associations that were once forbidde n.

Within the first four years of glasnost, in Russia alone, it is estimated that citizens formed something like 60,000 new, independent associations. Denied the ability to form any non-Party organizations for decades, people seized their new freedom with g usto. It was "like mushrooms after rain," wrote one newspaper at the time.

Many of these so-called "informals" (neformaly) were small, vague of purpose, and loose in organization. Many did not amount to more than discussion groups. Yet many grew to be significant organizations. Their leaders acquired important skills in the democratic arts of publishing, organizing conferences, conducting training programs, and demonstrating financial accountability. Today they are contributing in a multitude of ways to the formation of new, democratic cultures in Russia and other nations. As a group, they have become powerful guardians of freedom, as most of them understand that attacks on the liberty of a particular organization, if undefended, constitute a threat to the liberties of all.

Finally, the increasing internationalization of the work of American private voluntary organizations benefits our society, as well as the specific causes each organization serves.

PVOs play an important role in American society: they shape public opinion, affect the reporting of our media and influence electoral outcomes and government policies.

Yet some of our voluntary organizations, whose work presently is entirely domestic in its focus, operate on the basis of perspectives that are excessively America-centric and narrow. Adding an international dimension to their work through relations with PVOs in other countries can serve to broaden the perspectives of American PVO leaders. Through their speaking and writing, they may in turn improve the public's understanding of important international issues.

Additionally, international activities and relationships can multiply the effectiveness of many organizations. Whether the concern is the safe disposal of nuclear waste, or the placement of orphans in good homes, organizations able to mobilize people and apply resources on an international scale can be more effective at achieving their goals than those unable to do so. This applies to American voluntary organizations involved in the NIS, as well as in other world regions.

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Last updated: March 25 1996

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