国际政治经济学International Political Economy

同国际社会中的国家一样，非政府组织在过去的二十年里，特别是在当今国际政治经济发展迅猛的全球治理中，已经取得了很大的进步。因为非政府组织参与了各种活动，如人权宣传和经济发展问题，很难界定非政府组织的确切定义是什么。但至少有五个特征，即组织、公共利益的焦点，非营利，非政府组织和行为的立法（oudraat和弗吉尼亚，2008）。虽然在国际政治经济中的主要演员是国家，其他非国家行为者，特别是非政府组织也可以参加，并在全球治理中有很大的影响力。因此，非政府组织与全球治理之间有着紧密的联系。这些行动者往往直接参与国际政治经济框架内的国际和平与安全问题和国际经济问题。本文将探讨非政府组织在全球治理的四个主要角色，这是议程设置、谈判、监督和实施，和执行国际安全和经济部门。本文的主体部分将分为三部分。在第一部分中，非政府组织的影响力越来越大。其次是非政府组织在第二部分的全球治理中的作用。最后，关于非政府组织的代表性和合法性的争论将集中。Like the role of the states in the international community, NGOs have made great processes in having their voice heard in the last twenty years, especially in the global governance which is developing fast in the contemporary international political economy. Because NGOs involved in various activities such as human rights advocacy and economic development issues, it is hard to define what the exact definition of NGOs is. But there are at least five characteristics, which are organizations, public-interest focus, non-profit, non-government and act within the legislation (Oudraat & Virginia, 2008). Although the primary actor in the international political economy is the state, other non-state actors, especially NGOs can also participate and have great influence in global governance. Therefore, there is a tight connection between NGOs and global governance. These actors are often directly involved in the international peace and security issues and international economic issues within the framework of international political economy. This essay will evaluate four main roles of NGOs in global governance, which are agenda-setting, negotiation, supervising andimplementation, and enforcement in international security and economic sector. The main part of this essay will be arranged into three parts. The increasing influence of NGOs will be illustrated in the first part. This is followed by the role of NGOs in global governance in the second part. Finally, the heated debate about NGO’s representativeness and legitimacywill be focused.

 

Since 1990s, the NGO has expanded markedly no matter in its number or visibility(Boberts & Frohling, 2005). The number of NGOs who engaged in cross-border activities is remarkably larger than previous decades. For example, Gollongwood (2006) estimated that over 90 per cent of NGOs were established during the last couple of decades, and one-fourth of international NGOs were founded after 1990. Interest groups and both local and transnational activists have become more important in the area of governance. Four reasons can basically explain the growing number of NGOs (Alqadhafi, 2007). First, there are more resources available to stimulate the increasing number of NGOs. For instance, the amount of humanitarian assistance money raised from 3 billion dollars to 9.2 billion dollarsduring 1990 to 2006 period, which is nearly three times. Second, since the cold war, the number of human-made disasters and natural disasters have increased dramatically, therefore, the need to build peace and economic development projects is urgent. Third, the permissive environment was made after the cold war, which provided a stage for NGOs to be more active. Finally, organizations such as the United Nations, WB and IMF provided NGOs new opportunities to be involved in global policy making.

 

With all the preconditions existed, NGOs come to exercising their influence at the global governance level. NGOs play roles in agenda-setting, negotiation, supervising and implementation and finally, enforcement. All these roles are related to each other but have unique components in peace and security governance and international economic governance (Prasad, 2012).

 

The agenda - setting is the basic role of NGOs, they have a series of mechanisms to introduce their issues on the global agenda in order to pursue their goals. Through modern technology, they transmit information to the public, through organizing summits and street protests, they persuade leaderships and policy makers to consider their goals and interests. Information is a particular important factor in agenda-setting. Actually, the information which NGOs supply to the public and policy makers has a powerful influence on how the issue will be structured and if the action can be taken into practice (Pegg, 2002). For example, Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group, which are both research and advocacy NGOs, have been involved and have great influences in the debate over what action should be taken in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Rwanda. NGOs also can be a source of innovative and new policy ideas, which might be taken by intergovernmental organizations and governments. For example, the conflict in Sierra Leone has been solved by the NGOs named Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada. They reached an innovative agreement by blockingthe link between diamond market and the finance sector. Moreover, NGOs are also engaged in formulating new norms and fostering the norms into the international civil society (Cakmak, 2004). Policy issues can reflect the values that various actors have in the society, therefore, NGOs compete with other actors for norms influence (Charnovitz, 2006). Once the norms adopted by enough numbers of people, the norms can be widely socialized into society (Finnemore, 1996). Shift the attention to the role of NGOs in the international economic organisations. In the case of external debt in the development of the South, a variety of NGOs gave persistent pressure to the organisations, which resulted in both the WB and the IMF launched the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative Program (Scholte, 2000). It is the NGOs who put this issue on the agenda in the international economic organisations.

 

However, NGOs are not only norm-driven actors, but also self-interests actors. As Clifford (2005) stated in his book, NGOs have their need to involve in hardball politics to survive, not just value-based. Similarly, NGOs and corporations are both public values and self-interest groups (Sell & Prakash, 2004). In a short conclusion, agenda-setting is one of the most important role of NGOs in global governance. Their strategies are largely influenced by informational technologies and advocacy. Their motivations are both value-based and interest-based. But it is undoubtedly that NGOs indeed have the ability to affect the agendas in the peace and security affairs and economic affairs in global governance.

 

Negotiation is another important role of NGOs, they have been actively involved in multilateral negotiations for decades. For example, back to 1945, governments have been pressured to include the issue human rights in the UN Charter by NGOs. After the late 1980s, there are more formal and growing numbers of NGOs negotiations participated in the UN, which offered NGOs the right to involve in multilateral negotiations and offered a formal observer status, so that NGOs’ voice can be heard (Andresen, 1998). For instance, more than 2,500 NGOs have status as consultants in the UN’s Economic and Social Council, and similarly, approximately 100 NGOs for the UNon the disarmament issue (UN, 2008b). There are some examples which show that NGOs can be the negotiating efforts between warring parties. The Quakers can be an example. It hosted and facilitated talks between Biafran rebel leaders and the Nigerian government in the 1967-1979 conflict. Moreover, Jimmy Carter’s Conflict Resolution Program has acted as mediator in various conflicts.

 

However, this kind of NGOs’ involvement in negotiation is not very common, and their involvement in conflict resolution and peacemaking is not very successful and as expected. Sant’ Egidio’s role in the negotiate between the Albanian community and the Serbian government in Kosovo was never been successful and never been implemented (Smock, 2001). Despite this kind of failure, NGOs have difficulty to formally access the global economic negotiations. Although the contacts between NGOs and the IMF are growing, they are usually on the informal level. It is impossible for the civic associations to affect IMF’s behaviour in an exact degree. In this sense, states have asserted their sovereign prerogatives and acted as gatekeepers in dealing with NGO actors. In addition, according to Atwood (2006), NGOs still have little influence, even they have access to the formal negotiating process. Therefore, he believes that NGOs should participate more with key actors and partner with governments more to enhance their power and promote their status in the global governance.

 

Despite of NGOs’ role in agenda-setting and negotiation, they have grown as significant players in fostering fulfillment and warning, as well as assistant within intergovernmental agreements (UN, 2008a). NGOs such as the International Crisis Group and U.S. Committee for Refugees report directly to the government and to the public. They often play as monitoring and warning roles, because of the lack of institutionalized means for warning. On the issue of human rights, refugees and weapons, NGOs play crucial roles as watchdogs and whistle-blowers in the potential violations and emerging conflicts. Technologies such as remote communication and satellite technology have provided effective methods for monitoring and warning. For example, the UNHCR has set a hotline, which enables NGOs to alert the potential conflict to others. In addition, NGOs can also be a role as assistance provider in some countries to comply and implement with agreement (USAID, 2012). They use information, persuasion power, the resources of expertise and public pressure to influence and convert the behaviours of governments who do not commit to the intergovernmental agreements. For example, if the intergovernmental agreements have some problems, NGOs will help fill the void alone or with other international organizations. Moreover, NGOs can also provide the necessary infrastructure and services when international organizations need but fail to do so (Ibrahim & Hulme, 2010). For instance, if the NGOs assist the World Bank to implement its policies and deliver its developmental services in the least developed countries, the international organisations can achieve their goals more quickly and gain more support they admired. Therefore, NGOs act as monitors and implements to change the behaviour of the states in some ways and to alleviate the global issues (Tandon, 1991).#p#分页标题#e#

 

Compared with international organisations, international organisations are the main actors to monitor and verify of the intergovernmental agreements , while it is quite rare that NGOs have sufficientsources and commit to take the long-term tasks. Moreover, most NGOs are still informal and are hard to regulate all of their information in the global scale.

 

Last but not least, NGOs can be as a role of enforcement and reaction to noncompliance. Sometimes, NGOs can formally submit the information of noncompliance to some specific bodies. For instance, in the UN human rights bodies, NGOs are allowed to submit noncompliance of human rights issues formally. Additionally, their main power of enforcement is through building massive public support to against the noncompliant actors. NGOs’ protest campaigns and activism can be the powerful tools when they get sufficient support from the public (Kelly, 2007). For instance, the Amnesty International launched campaigns and finally pushed governments to release political prisoners successfully. Furthermore, NGOs are also the power of democracy in the international economic organisations. In this sense, the social movements which cross state borders seem to be a symbol of democratic practises of these international economic organisations, and the participation of NGOs can enforce the international economic organisations to operate more transparent and open.

 

However, the NGOs’ role in response to the noncompliance actions is limited to assessment and enforcement powers, thus, they cannot take remedial actions effectively (Sands, 1996). They have limited influence in terms of international enforcement actions. North Korea and Iran’s nuclear technology can be a typical example, NGOs have no leverage to enforce sanctions to these countries. Nevertheless, NGOs at least provide effective supervising and have greatly contribute to enforce actions.

 

The role played by NGOs in the global governance is far from being negligible. Their positions are manifested in the social and economic cycles, and more influential in the peace and security sector and the economic issues. This evolution of NGOs is becoming more extensive and swift, which is positive for the civil society but is not welcomed by traditional actors, especially the governmental actors. They are the front line to challenge the roles of NGOs in global governance and to emphasize the weaknesses and limits of NGOs, the most typical problem are representativeness and legitimacy (Edwards, Hulme, & Wallace, 1999). NGOs often claimed themselves as the representatives of the public, they act as the voice of the poor, the abused women or advocate for the issue of humanity on behalf of the world’s citizens. However, NGOs can be unrepresentative. According to Slim (2002), NGOs may claim to act in standing for the interests of people, which is also the objective of governments and international institutions. At present, governments are accountable to their voters, otherwise, the government will be risk and lose its legitimacy, but who does the NGOs accountable to (Beetham, 1991)? This implicates that governments still have greater legitimacy, no matter if there is imperfection of democracy. Furthermore, NGOs often use the support of partnership with powerful actors, such as the international organizations, governments and enterprises (Vedder, 2003). They may represent specific interest and values to some specific groups, thus, they do not have the requirement to stand for a balanced views in the global level.

 

In conclusion, the overview of the NGOs’ role in the current global governance is really important. They act as agenda-setting, negotiation, supervising andimplementation, and enforcement in peace and security sector and international economic organisations sector. Moreover, the rapidly expanding of global governance increasingly enhances the NGOs’ roles as central players. It is apparently that NGOs are cooperating more with the states and the international organizations on a series of issues, especially on the low politics, such as peacemaking and human rights, but they are trying to involve in the high politics (Cortright & Pagnucco, 1997). Nevertheless, challenges that NGOs meet today are still various, such as their representativeness and legitimacy, therefore, there will still be a tough way for NGOs to act in the international arena as significant roles.

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