Government-organized non-governmental organization

A government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) is a non-governmental organization that was set up or sponsored by a government in order to further its political interests and mimic the civic groups and civil society at home, or promote its international or geopolitical interests abroad.

History

The term GONGO had become established by the late 1980s,[1] and it was suggested that it was first introduced by a group of Indonesian non-governmental organizations.[2]

Most contemporary attempts to understand GONGOs have come from studies of authoritarian contexts, where these organizations have proliferated as a deliberative strategy by the state to have a (corporatist) mechanism that feeds directly into a grassroots civic space. It is thus unsurprising that the current (albeit limited) theorizing on the nature of GONGOs primarily highlights their role in undermining liberal democratic values.[3][4]

Goals

A GONGO can be created for any sound political or social purpose, however, in reality, it would be functioning as a mechanism of the government to further its domestic political interests and realize its economic and foreign policy objectives. Sometimes, GONGOs are created to solicit international aid, or mitigate specific humanitarian issues.[5] Though not necessarily confined to developing countries, most often, GONGOs are set up by undemocratic governments to maintain some level of control of a GONGO's personnel, purpose, operation or activities.[6][7][8] This control is often not seen in a positive light, as it compromises the spirit of an NGO by introducing hidden actors and withholding the government's intentions from the public.[6]

Examples

Examples of government-organized non-governmental organization:

See also

References
  1. Brown LD, Korten D. 1989. The role of voluntary organizations in development. IDR Work. Pap. No. 8. Boston: Inst. Dev. Res./Boston Univ. Sch. Manage.
  2. Radhamany Sooryamoorthy, K. D. Gangrade, Ngos in India: A Cross-Sectional Study, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 0313319545, ISBN 9780313319549
  3. Naim, Moises. "What Is a GONGO?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  4. Wiktorowicz, Quintan (2002). "The Political Limits to Nongovernmental Organizations in Jordan". World Development. 30 (1): 77–93.
  5. Natalie Steinberg. Background Paper on GONGOs and QUANGOs and Wild NGOs. World Federalist Movement Institute of Global Policy, 2001.
  6. Naím, Moisés. Democracy's Dangerous Impostors, The Washington Post, 21 April 2007.
  7. F. Ching. Is it an NGO, or a GONGO?: New Chinese body rebuts US report on human rights, Far East. Econ. Rev., 1994.
  8. F. Wu. Environmental GONGO autonomy: unintended consequences of state strategies in China, The Good Society, 2003.
  9. China's Nonprofit Sector: Progress and Challenges
  10. James Kirchick. Anti-Nazi Group Secretly Helping Kremlin Rebuild Russian Empire, The Daily Beast, 02.08.2015.
  11. What is a Gongo, Global Politics in a Changing World: A Reader, p. 222.

Further reading
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