Legitimation issues in the state-nonprofit relationship

Current theories on the origin of the nonprofit sector do not adequately ex plain changes in the relative scale of social welfare service provision by the state versus private nonprofit entities. French and Japanese experience s illustrate that nations can undergo significant change, cycling through p eriods of expansion then restriction of the legal status and role of the no nprofit sector. This article considers the potential for legitimation strat egies to explain the shifts in nonprofit status in France and Japan. The ar ticle concludes that although some theoretical foundation exists on legitim ation concepts, additional work needs to be done to derive a sufficient the ory of how legitimation issues affect change in the nonprofit sector.