Institutional models of modern national charity

The article considers the modern domestic charity as an institutional phenomenon. An attempt is made to theoretically justify the modern national charity in the context of institutional models. The nature and essential characteristics of the institute of Orthodox charity and of the institute of modern rational-egoistic charity (philanthropy) were determined. It was found that the institutional specificity of Orthodox charity and philanthropy is detected at the levels of private philanthropy nature, values, norms, focal points, organisation, structure, subject-subject relations, charity factor, understanding of socially oriented charity, moral educational potential factor implementation, basic public and latent functions. We found that in the context of Orthodox charity the inflation factor is professional begging, but in the context of philanthropy it is the misunderstanding of its rational-egoistic nature, distrust of professional intermediaries, as well as the use of philanthropy as a form of payment and as a tool for extortion. Misunderstanding of the nature of philanthropy involves using the criteria of Orthodox charity in its assessment. It was noted that the use of philanthropy as a tool for extortion causes a categorical shift of charity from the category of the good in the category of the evil in the public consciousness. Misunderstanding of the rational-egoistic nature of modern charity; lack of trust in professional intermediaries, use charity as a payment tool and the extortion cause obstacles to the formation of institutional philanthropy, and, consequently, the evolution of our society. The consequence of ignoring in modern research of the fact of the poly-system of national charity, is that the terms ''secular'' and ''church'' is used, not as a structural unit, but preferably as adjectives. The consequence of ignoring the fact of poly-institutionalism of the national charity in modern research is that the terms ''secular'' and ''church'' are used not as structural units, but mostly as adjectives. Structuring of charity using the system level does not detect the poly-system character of modern private philanthropy; while charity structuring using the meta-system level shows that in the structure of secular private charity there exists rational-egoistic charity and private secular ethical charity, and in the meta-system of Orthodox charity - alms. Ignoring the system and institutional approach is an obstacle to the development of the scientific paradigm of charity. Also, it was noted that the understanding of charity as a poly-institutional phenomenon is important for understanding of philanthropy in general; and understanding of the poly-system character of private charity is crucial for effective fund-raising work. It was found that private philanthropy in modern society is based on different models: biological charity takes place in the forms of kinship care, ethical - in random help to strangers, and rational-egoistic - in a planned strategic assistance. In today's society there are facts of ethical rationalization of secular charity. The conclusion is that charity in today's society is a poly-institutional phenomenon. Modern private charity has a multi-faceted nature.

Keywords

Authors

References