The professions and public policy: Expanding the third sector

Professional associations are often seen as wholly self-interested actors, and/or as an integral, indistinguishable part of the privileged elite. As a result, the international third sector literature has tended to focus on t he activities of social movements and NGOs. This article uses field researc h and the rich Brazilian third sector literature to assess these assumption s. The fir st part shows that numerous policy-relevant groups hale long exi sted in Brazil, beyond the NGO/social movement ambit. The article then demo nstrates the autonomy and policy relevance of professional associations. Th e final section shifts to the local level, using the activities of these gr oups in the state of Santa Catarina to show that the Brazilian third sector is best seen not in opposition to the state, but as part of dense policy n etworks including the state, business, and other nonprofit groups.