This chapter tests the Community Volunteerism Model developed in Chapter 5 through the study of four countries – Finland, Japan, Turkey, and the United States – that the model predicts should have very different volunteer patterns. The Community Volunteerism Model does a good job of predicting both the types of participation found in each of these countries as well as the rate of participation. Furthermore, the model highlights important ways in which the practices of the four countries reinforce (or undermine) the ideas of individual and governmental responsibility, thereby affecting the types of organizations that are supported and the rates of participation over time. This chapter highlights how the practices that were important in determining volunteer participation at the local community level (as seen in Chapters 4 and 5 in the three Japanese cities) are also influencing volunteer participation at the national level.

The first section in the chapter explains why these four countries were chosen and outlines the pattern of participation predicted by the Community Volunteerism Model. The second section examines each of the four countries in detail, testing the model to see if the ideas of individual and governmental responsibility and the practices of societal and governmental institutions interact to produce the predicted patterns of volunteer participation in each country. The third section returns to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the model as revealed by this test.

FOUR DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF VOLUNTEER PARTICIPATION

Community patterns of volunteer participation can vary by type and by rate.