Abstract
Non-governmental organizations are no longer a peripheral actor on the world stage. NGOs in both the South and the North have grown dramatically in recent years. The UNDP suggests that there were probably close to 50 000 NGOs in developing countries in the 1980s, many of which could not survive without assistance from the North.1 However, NGOs’ real impact and significance is only poorly understood. NGO staff have little time to think about the broader political and social implications of their activities since they are often overworked and absorbed in day-to-day problems. As well, much of the existing literature on development is not very helpful for evaluating the significance of NGOs or guiding their action.
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Notes and References
United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) p. 86.
Brian H. Smith, More Than Altruism: The Politics of Private Foreign Aid (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) p. 276.
William Reuben Soto, ‘Concertación’, in Sjef Theunis (ed.), Non-Governmental Development Organizations of Developing Countries: And the South Smiles … (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992) p. 126, his emphasis.
Edelberto Torres-Rivas, Repression and Resistance: The Struggle for Democracy in Central America (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989) p. 143.
The phrase comes from Richard Falk, ‘The Making of Global Citizenship’, in Jeremy Brecher, John Brown Childs, and Jill Cutler (eds), Global Visions: Beyond the New World Order (Boston: South End Press, 1993) pp. 39–50.
Richard J. Barnet and John Cavanagh, Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and the New World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) pp. 429–30
M.J. Peterson, ‘Transnational Activity, International Society and World Politics’, Millennium, 21, 3 (1992) p. 376.
See, for example, Ronnie D. Lipschutz, ‘Reconstructing World Politics: The Emergence of Global Civil Society’, Millennium, 21, 3 (1992) pp. 389–420.
Martin Shaw, ‘Global Society and Global Responsibility: The Theoretical, Historical and Political Limits of “International Society”’, Millennium, 21, 3 (1992) p. 431.
Robert W. Cox, ‘Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method’, Millennium, 12, 2 (Summer 1983) p. 171.
Liisa North and CAPA, Between War and Peace in Central America: Choices for Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1990).
Oscar H. Jara, ‘Las “Organizaciones No-Gubernamentales”, la Crisis y el Futuro de Centroamérica’ (San José: Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones ALFORJA, 1987) p. 4.
AVANCSO-IDESAC, ‘ONGs, Sociedad Civil y Estado en Guatemala: Elementos para el Debate’ (Guatemala: AVANCSO-IDESAC, March 1990).
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© 1997 Laura Macdonald
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Macdonald, L. (1997). Toward Global Civil Society?. In: Supporting Civil Society. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25178-0_5
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