Non-governmental organisations, power and legitimacy in international society

Review of International Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 439-454

  Collincwood, Vivien ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33746873259     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210506007108     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. See, for instance: I. Clark, 'Legitimacy in a Global Order', Review of International Studies, 29 (2003), pp. 75-96;
2. M. Bukovansky, Legitimacy and Power Politics: The American and French Revolutions in International Political Culture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002);
3. J.-M. Coicaud, 'Reflections on International Organisations and Legitimacy: Constraints, Pathologies, and Possibilities', International Social Science Journal, 53:4 (2001), pp. 523-36;
4. R. Kagan, 'America's Crisis of Legitimacy', Foreign Affairs, March-April (2004), pp. 05-87.
5. Clark, 'Legitimacy in a Global Order', p. 75.
6. Hndley Bull distinguished between an international society states, and world society composed of individuals. See further, H. Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study in World Order (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995).
7. For a reassessment of Bull's approach, see B. Buzari, From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Structure of Globalisation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
8. See the recent Special Issue of the Review of International Studies, 29 (2003),
9. on governance and resistance in world politics. See also D. Held, Global Covenant: The Social Democratic Alternative to the Washington Consensus (Cambridge: Polity, 2004).
10. Sustain Ability, the Global Compact and UNEP, The 21st Century NGO: In the Market for Change (London: SustainAbility, 2003).
11. A. Florini, The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2000);
12. A. Najam, 'Citizen Organisations as Policy Entrepreneurs', in D. Lewis (ed.), International Perspectives on Voluntary Action (London: Earthscan, 1999), pp. 142-81;
13. S. Waddell, 'NGO Strategies to Engage Business: Trends, Critical Issues, and Next Steps', Oxfam, Civicus and Global Action Network Net, March 2004, available from 〈http://www.gan-net.net/pdfs/ngo-business.pdf〉.
14. Waddell, 'NGO Strategies, section 3.
15. Florini, The Third Force, p. 3.
16. See also V. Collingwood and L. Logister, 'Stete of the Art: Addressing the INGO "Legitimacy Deficit" ', Political Studies Review (2005), pp. 175-92.
17. On defining 'NGO', see W. F. Fisher, 'Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO Practices', Annual Review of Anthropology, 26 (1997), pp. 439-64.
18. J. A. Scholte, 'Global Civil Society', in N. Woods (ed.), The Political Economy of Globalisation (London: Macmillan, 2000), pp. 279-302.
19. J. Matthews, 'Pownr Shift', Foreign Affairs, January-February (1997), pp. 50-66;
20. L. M. Salamon, 'The Global Associational Revolution: The Rise of the Non-Profit Sector on the World Scene', Occasional paper, Institute for Policy Studies, John Hopkins University, Baltimore (1993).
21. M. Edwards, NGO Rights and Responsibilities: A New Deal for Global Governance (London: The Foreign Policy Centre, 2000), p. 9.
22. The British Rast. India Company and thn medieval Church are obvious examples.
23. Najam, 'Citizen Organisations as Policy Entrepreneurs'; SustainAbility, The 21st Century NGO,
24. See also the literature review in I. Atack, 'Four Criteria of NGO Legitimacy', World Development, 27:5 (1999), pp. 855-64.
25. D. C. Korten, "Third Generation NGO Strategies: A Key to People-Centred Development', World Development, 15 (1987), pp. 145-59.
26. D. C. Korten, Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda (Wnst Hartford: Kumarian Press, 1990).
27. A good example of this is Oxfam International's 2001-4 strategic plan, Towards Global Equity, which puts great emphasis on the necessity of global civil society cooperation to change the rules of the global political economy. Available from 〈http://www.oxfam.org/end/pdfs/strat_plan.pdf〉.
28. See J.-A. Scholte, The WTO and Civil Society', in B. Hocking and S. McGuire (eds.), Trade Politics: International, Domestic, and Regional Perspectives (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 146-61;
29. J. Fox and D. Brown, The Struggle for Accountability: The World Bank, NGOs and Grassroots Movements (London: MIT Press,'1998);
30. T. G. Wiess and L. Gordenker, NGOs, the UN and Global Governance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Riennnr, 1996).
31. SustalnAblllty, The 21st Century NGO;
32. S. Waddell, 'NGO Strategies to Engage Business'.
33. See I. Atack, 'Four Criteria of Development NGO Legitimacy', pp. 860-1;
34. A. M. Clark, 'Non-Govornmental Organisations and their Influence on International Society', Journal of International Affairs, 48 (1995), p. 510;
35. M. Edwards and D. Hulme (eds.), Non-Governmental Organisations - Performance and Accountability: Beyond the Magic Bullet (London: Earthscan, 1999).
36. See 〈http://www.cleanclothes.org〉.
37. N. Ascoly and I. Zelderirust, "The Code Debate in Context: A Decade of Campaigning for Clean Clothes', available at 〈http://www.cleanclothes. org/codes/99-3-11.htm〉.
38. See 〈http://www.transparency.org〉.
39. Soc further, D. Bootham, The Legitimation of Power (London; Macmillan, 1991).
40. M. Edwards, NGO Rights and Responsibilities, p. 20.
41. For this reason, some writers have advocated banishing the concept from the academic lexicon altogether. See, for instance, R. O'Kane, 'Against Legitimacy', Political Studies, 16 (1993), pp. 471-87.
42. International law is the obvious contender for the position of yardstick, but laws are made and enforced by states. The problem of the lack of an enforcing sovereign thus remains.
43. For example, sec the following opinion from Occidental of Umm al Qaywayn v. A Certain Cargo etc. (1978): 'in their external relations, sovereigns are bound by no law: they are like our ancestors before the recognition of imposition of the social contract. A prerequisite law is a superior authority whether delegated from below or imposed from above - where there is no recognised authority, there is no law.' Quoted in T. Franck, The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
44. See further, Franck, The Power of Legitimacy.
45. Bull, The Anarchical Society.
46. See, for Instance: A. Hurrell and N. Woods (eds.), Inequality. Globalliation and World Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999);
47. I. Shapiro and C. Hacker-Cordon (eds.), Democracy's Edges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999);
48. D. Held, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995):
49. P. Cerny, 'Globalisation and the Erosion of Democracy', European Journal of Political Research, 36 (1999), pp. 1-6;
50. G. Monbiot, The Age of Consent (Flamingo, 2003);
51. N. Hertz, The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy (London; Arrow Books, 2001).
52. Held, Democracy and the Global Order.
53. Clark, 'Legitimacy in a Global Order'.
54. N. Woods, 'Holding International Institutions to Account', Ethics and International Affairs, 17:1 (2003), pp. 69-80.
55. Held, Democracy and the Global Order.
56. R. Falk, The World Order between Inter-State Law and the Law of Humanity: The Role of Civil Society Institutions', in D. Archihugi and D. Hold (eds.), Cosmopolitan Democracy: An Agenda for a New World Order (Cambridge: Polity, 1995), pp. 103-79.
57. Not all of these justifications are adopted by all organisations, and there are potential conflicts between them. For instance, some NGOs argue that receiving government funding or working in close partnership with governmental institutions compromises NGOs' legitimacy, others argue that it enhsmces it.
58. M. Edwards, 'Legitimacy and Values in NGOs and International Organisations: Some Sceptical Thoughts', in D. Lewis (ed.), International Perspectives on Voluntary Action: Reshaping the Third Sector (London: Earthscsm, 1999), pp. 257-67.
59. See, for instance, 〈http://www.amnnesty.org〉;
60. 〈http://www.oxfam.org〉;
61. and 〈http:// www.defence-for-children.org〉.
62. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power.
63. See, in general, A. Vedder, 'Non-State Actors' Interference in the International Debate on Moral Issues - Legitimacy and Accountability', in A. Vedder (ed.), The WTO and Concerns Regarding Animals and Nature (Nijmegen: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2003).
64. The Economist, cited in H. Slim, 'By What Authority? The Legitimacy and Accountability of Non-Governmental Organisations', Paper presented at the International Council on Human Rights Policy International Mooting on Global Trends and Human Rights - Before and Aftor September 11, Geneva, 10-12 January 2002. See also statements at 〈http://www.ngowatch.org〉.
65. A. Hudock, NGOs and Civil Society: Democracy by Proxy? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999).
66. This is, of course, related to the issue of procedures, since the tighter the formal representative relationship between an organisation and its constituency, the more one would expect the organisation to reflect its constituents' values.
67. Edwards, NGO Rights and Responsibilities, p. 23.
68. See 'A Challenge to Conservationists', World Watch, November-December 2004.
69. See also P. Nelson, 'Conflict, Legitimacy and Effectiveness: Who Speaks for Whom in Transnational NGO Networks Lobbying the World Bank?', Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 26:4 (1997), pp. 7-30;
70. and Hudock, NGOs and Civil Society.
71. C. Odinakalu, 'International Policies, African Realities: Human Rights and Democracy in Africa', available from 〈http://www.africaaction.org/ rtable/chi0002.htm〉.
72. Held, Democracy and the Global Order,
73. J. Habermas, The Postnational Constellation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
74. On communitarian and relativism, see M. Walzer, Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (University of Notre Dame: India, 1994).
75. See also Bull, The Anarchical Society, p. 82.
76. Edwards, NGO Rights and. Responsibilities, p. 25.
77. See also D. Sogge (ed.), Compassion and Calculation: The Business of Private Foreign Aid (London: Pluto Press, 1996).
78. Sec, for Instance: Oxfam UK's statement of legitimacy and accountability, available at 〈http://www.oxfam.org.uk/about_us/legitimacy.htm〉:
79. and NGO accountability projects at 〈http://www.hapinternational. org〉;
80. 〈http://www.oneworldtrust.org〉;
81. 〈http://www.sphereproject.org〉.
82. Many large TNGOs submit their finances to external audit and give a detailed breakdown of expenditure - including the balance between administrative and programme costs - in their annual reports. In this sense, INGOs can be more transparent than private sector corporations.
83. R. Dworkin, "The right to ridicule', The New York Review of Books, 53:5 (2006).
84. This is certainly the case with attacks on INGOs from radical right- and left- wing organisations.
85. For a thorough review of recent research into the current administration's environmental record, see B. McKibben, 'Crossing the Red Line', New York Review of Books, 51/10 (2004).
86. This is not. to deny, of course, that some NGOs are created with other interests in mind, such as those supported by corporations to put forward a particular set of views on, say, environmental policy, or to take a particular political line. NGO Watch, for instance, an NGO set up by the American Enterprise Institute, falls into this category, as would the International Policy Network, which receives financial support, from ExxonMobil.