Nonprofit–Government Partnership during a Crisis: Lessons from a Critical Historical Junction

In a series of studies spanning a few decades, Salamon and his colleagues examined the interdependency between government and the voluntary sector, based on mutual complementarity in view of each sector’s weaknesses and advantages. This articles tests the relevance of Salamon’s postulates for the analysis and understanding of a concrete historical junction that had global characteristics: a state-in-formation that experienced a massive war of dire consequence for the entire fabric of life. The complexity of social problems and challenges grows in crisis situations and under extreme circumstances. Hence, intersectoral partnerships are especially relevant for the treatment of social problems precisely then. In this context, a historical case study has the advantage of allowing us to draw lessons from a crisis that already took place. Accordingly, in this article we employ Salamon’s concept of intersectoral partnership to examine relations among voluntary and state actors that operated in an arena engulfed in crisis and present the advantages of intersectoral partnership in situations of extremity and uncertainty.