Governments have three basic alternatives for dealing with private philanthropy: they can constrain it, protect it, or promote it. Tracing the philosophical roots of each approach is a worthwhile exercise that few contemporary thinkers have attempted.

Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill has served as executive director of the Fund for Academic Renewal, a program of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and on the faculties of the College of William & Mary and St. John’s College (Annapolis).
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