New Public Governance, the Third Sector, and Co-Production

19  New Public Governance, Co-Production and Third SectorSocial Services in Europe

Crowding In and Crowding Out

Victor Pestoff

INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, changes in the public sector itself were brought to the fore by various scholars to better understand the role of citizens and the third sector in the provision of public services. First, Vincent Ostrom challenged the dominant perspective of unitary provision of most public services and developed an alternative version of responsible government and democratic administration (1973). Following this, Elinor Ostrom, and her colleagues analyzed the role of citizens in the provision of public services in terms of co-production (Parks et al., 1981). More recently, several other prominent scholars ...