Abstract
How do the preferences and behavior of both donor organizations and host countries affect the strategies, activities, and effectiveness of international NGOs (INGOs)? Recent books by Sarah Bush, Jessica Teets, and Amanda Murdie bring unique ideas and empirical evidence to illustrate different parts of this question. To discuss the arguments in each book, as well as explore incidental ties between the three, we suggest a simple framework for organizing and understanding the dual institutional constraints on INGOs. In this essay, we use this framework to identify how each book addresses these influences on INGOs and how, in some cases, INGOs can reverse the direction of influence.
Figure
Figure 2: The dual environmental constraints confronting INGOs
Books reviewed
- Sarah Sunn Bush, The Taming of Democracy Assistance: Why Democracy Promotion Does Not Confront Dictators (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015), doi:
10.1017/cbo9781107706934. - Jessica C. Teets, Civil Society under Authoritarianism: The China Model (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), doi:
10.1017/cbo9781139839396. - Amanda Murdie, Help or Harm: The Human Security Effects of International NGOs (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014), doi:
10.2307/j.ctvqsdpq8.
Citation
@article{HeissKelley:2017,
Author = {Andrew Heiss and Judith G. Kelley},
Doi = {10.1086/691218},
Journal = {Journal of Politics},
Month = {4},
Number = {2},
Pages = {732--41},
Title = {Between a Rock and a Hard Place: International {NGOs} and the Dual Pressures of Donors and Host Governments},
Volume = {79},
Year = {2017}}