Institutionalising relationships between government and the third sector: The case of the Estonian “Compact”

Relations between government and the third sector have been a focus of interest for researchers since the 1980s. Most of the previous studies in the field have addressed the relationship between government and the third sector either in the context of service provision (e.g. Anheier and Seibel, 1998; Gidron et al., 1992; Kramer et al., 1993; Salamon, 1987, 1995; Taylor and Lewis, 1997; Taylor and Bassi, 1998; Young, 2000) or with an emphasis on the involvement of NGOs in political decision-making processes (e.g. Bullain and Toftisova, 2005; Casey, 1998, 2004; Craig et al., 2004; Kramer, 1981; Taylor et al., 2002; Taylor and Warburton, 2003).