Folkrörelsens vara eller icke vara

This paper studies the effect of New Public Management on the voluntary organizations within Swedish foreign aid. The Swedish voluntary organizations have played a central role in the history of the Swedish foreign aid but are now faced with a new situation. The implementations of New Public Management and the Aid Effectiveness Agenda have a negative effect on the social capital of a society by affecting organizations that are dependent on government funding. This study examines the effect of the implementation of the Paris declaration on the voluntary organizations within the Swedish foreign aid community. The new situations of the organizations arrive in the ideological clash between the traditional and the new that is very hard for them to relate to in order to meet the new requirements put forward by the declaration and they have to make organizational reforms that can put their future existence on the line. The new reforms entail a professionalization of the organizations that could lead to the loss of the members of the organization and in the end contribute to the loss of social capital in the Swedish society