Introduction

During the last few decades, philanthropy has become an important and widely discussed social phenomenon throughout the world. The term philanthropy refers to a wide range of activities undertaken by many different types of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as individuals. This chapter focuses on ‘voluntary giving’, which has social policy relevance, and uses the term to describe voluntary sector activities that involve the provision of social assistance and services.

The chapter asks four questions. The first concerns the way philanthropy complements the role played by other institutions in welfare provision. These other institutions include the state, the family and the market; but the main focus here will be on the relationship between philanthropic activities and state redistributive practices. The second question addresses the way in which philanthropy affects, and is affected by, prevailing normative attitudes towards social solidarity.

The third question focuses on the role of religion, which is often an important dimension of the voluntary sector: shaping philanthropic action and influencing social policy processes and institutions in different historical and social contexts. Finally, the fourth question is about the political implications of philanthropic activities, a question that is not unrelated to T. H. Marshall's (1964a) comment on the complementarity of civil, political and social rights.

These questions are pursued with reference to the recent developments in Turkey's social policy environment. After 1980, a large number of NGOs, many of which provide social assistance and services, were formed in Turkey. This expansion of the voluntary sector followed the country's entry into the global market economy, and coincided with the rise of political Islam.

The salience of religion in society and politics could not be seen as a phenomenon peculiar to Turkey or to Islamic countries generally. Globally observed in cultural trends in the post-1980 period included questioning of Enlightenment values and intense debates on ‘post-secularism’ or the ‘return of public religion’ (Levine, 1986; Casanova, 1994, 2008; Habermas, 2006). It is in this cultural context that philanthropy has acquired a new significance and its role, with regard to social policy, has changed.

However, in Turkey social policy reform and the changing role of philanthropy in the social arena were also shaped against the background formed by the country's old system of social protection whose inegalitarian character facilitated its dismantling and the legitimation of the emerging model of social solidarity.