Germany – Still a Welfare Partnership Country?

Abstract Germany’s traditional nonprofit sector, rooted in membership associations that served as intermediaries between citizens and government, is a story of the past. The organizations have either suffered from a significant decrease in membership, or they have turned into business-like organisations. As a result, welfare partnership is still in place. However, the partners have significantly changed: governments are enchanted with the logic of the market; nonprofit organizations are no longer part of civil society but proxies of corporate enterprises, and volunteering is welcomed by the government as a substitute for cheap labour.