日本的非營利組織: Nonprofit Sector in Japan

上禮拜的日本經營管理課講的是非營利組織。
我一向對非營利組織(NPO)抱持懷疑態度,基本上是敬而遠之,所以這次由專門研究NPO的教授來講NPO,我就像帶著一抹冷笑靠著椅背,準備看好戲的鄉
民一樣,等著她能夠提出什麼能替NPO辯護的理論出來,我甚至有點期待她能夠說服我NPO是非常有建設性的存在,畢竟,世界美好一點對我來說是有益無害
啊。 結果到底怎麼樣,就先按下不提,我先來整理一下她講課的一些重點吧:

What is a nonprofit organization?

Five defining characteristics:

  • Organized, formal   (意思就是要有正式的組織)
  • Privae, non-governmental  (政府當然是非營利,但有很多NPO沒有的權力,把政府算進來就不好玩了)
  • Not profit-distributing (就是不會把利潤分配給股東,所以投資NPO基本上就是在捐款啦)
  • Self-governing (不是政府或者是企業的魁儡)
  • Voluntary (這個定義有點模糊,我不太知道他指的是哪方面的voluntary)

Scope of NPOS

  • Nonprofit Corporation (像Mozilla這樣的公司)
  • Voluntary Groups/Organization or Civic Groups/Organization (像慈濟那樣的)
  • (For
    public interest) Incorporated Foundations and Associations
    (語言能力測驗基金會?海基會?) or Medical, religious, school, social welfare
    corps.... (佛光山協會那類的吧)
  • (For mutual benefit) Cooperatives, Labor unions, Economic Association (工會那類的)

Classification by Legal System

  For Profit Non-profit
Public benefit   Art. 34, Civil Code
Public Interest Corporation

Special Law Specified NPCs

Private/Mutual benefit Commercial Code, Stock corporation,
Limited corporation,
Partnership corporation
Special Law

Labor Union
Cooperatives

Statistics

Number of NPCs:

34,371 Specified NPCs in 2006 (from 1,176 NPCs in 1999)

Activity Fields:

57.8%
of NPCs engage in the field of health and social welfare, followed by
social education and intermediary advice and support.

Economic Theories on NPOs

  • Government Failure (Weisbrod 1974)
  • Market Failure (Hansmann 1980)
  • Voluntary Failure (Salamon 1987)
  • Entrepreneurship Theory (Yong 1986)

Political, sociological or management theories on NPOs

  • Guardian of values (Salamon)
  • Human change institute, Civility creation institute (Drucker)
  • Social capital (Boris, Putnam, Salamon)

Social Capital

Trust, Norm and Network

  • Making Democracy Work
  • Education: Creating human capital
  • Health: Stress buffer, happiness, longevity
  • Crime: crime rate down, safety
  • Economy: Unemployment rate down
  • Community empowerment

(說的也太厲害了吧)

Finance

(這就是重點啦)

Staff: 69.1% holds administrative staff (average 3)

Average Salary: 1.66 million yen

40% of NPCs have annual receipts less than 5 million yen

Only 13% of NPCs have the annual Receipts of 30 million yen or more

Conclusion

我們試著粗估一下NPC行政人員的薪水到底占收入(捐款)的百分之多少: 拿那些收入在500萬以下的40%來看,行政人員用2來計(平均是3),薪水是332萬,占了全部收入(算500萬)的66.4%。 所以簡單來說,如果你捐錢給這些組織,你的捐款有一半以上是進了行政人員的口袋。 雖然這是很隨便的算法,但這樣的數字還是十分驚人。

雖然教授講了很多NPO的好處,甚至連降低犯罪率、失業率都辦的到,但始終沒有什麼數據可以證明,而維持這麼龐大的NPO數量所耗費的社會資本,和他們所創造的,到底能不能平衡,還是只是在不斷的製造赤字? 這是最大的問題所在

作為一個社會學者,應該知道,對NPO在社會中存在的價值,要先以以批判的眼光看待吧? 這種宣教式的演講老實說只更加深了我對NPO的懷疑,而且對教授的客觀性和專業有點失去信心...  雖然我還算是收穫不少,但我期待更深入的研究

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