The Guardians Guarding Themselves: A Comparative Perspective on Nonprofit Self-Regulation

This Article explores regulation of the nonprofit sector by the sector itself—what we generally call "self-regulation." This is an increasingly important topic as federal and state legislators and executive branch officials, as well as the press and investigative organizations, call for stricter scrutiny and oversight of the American nonprofit sector in the wake of a host of scandals and glaring failures—and as the nonprofit sector and reasonable regulators seek to balance the role of government regulation with appropriate efforts by the sector to police itself. The Article discusses several detailed models for nonprofit self-regulation in Asia, as well as issues involving nonprofit self-regulation in the United States and in Asia. It seeks to analyze several emerging trends in nonprofit self-regulation, including the emergence of nonprofit associational entrepreneurs that have taken up self-regulation with vigor, and the increasing role of government in sponsoring and supporting self-regulation initiatives.