Building the Third Sector: Latin America’s Private Research Centers and Nonprofit Development

Winner of the 1997 ARNOVA Award for Distinguished Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research

The private third sector has largely displaced public universities and bureaucracies as Latin America's leaders in social science and related policy activities. In many nations, these private research centers have become the main workplace for intellectuals. Mostly think tanks, they are influential political institutions, often making strong contribution to democratization.

The success of these research centers marks an unsurpassed triumph for international philanthropy, but it also raises questions about the proper role and structural home for research and advanced study. Levy shows how the centers' success often undermine a region's struggling universities while failing themselves to fulfill higher education's fundamental mission.

Levy deals broadly with regional developments, yet systematically identifies and analyzes the crucial subpatterns. He integrates impressive empirical data with conceptual perspectives on nonprofit organizations, comparative politics, and comparative education as well as Latin American studies.