NONGOVERNMENTS: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World

This definitive work on nongovernmental organizations provides a complete overview of the composition and the types of NGOs that have emerged in recent years. Julie Fisher describes in detail the influence these organizations have had on political systems throughout the world and the hope their existence holds for the realization of sustainable development.

“This book will be particularly useful to those interested in capacity building and who need a comprehensive view of the ways that they (NGOs) work in different cultural and political settings.”

—David E. Apter

Chair, Department of Sociology and

Chair, Council on African Studies, Yale University

“(Julie Fisher) illuminates current meanings for the ambiguous term ‘civil society’ as she demonstrates the various models of how citizens organize at the local level to improve their communities and to develop political power, even while living under authoritarian systems.”

—Virginia A. Hodgkinson

Research Professor

Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University

“Nongovernments rescues the concept of civil society from being a murky ideological rationale for privatization and transforms it into a clearly delineated paradigm of the complex ties between polities, economies and societies.”

—Peter Dobkin Hall

Research Scientist and Acting Director

Program on Non-Profit Organizations, Yale University

“This book is the next step in Julie Fisher’s exciting work delineating how nongovernment organizations are transforming the ways individuals and communities conduct their business, carry out their politics, and protect their rights. We cannot yet know the outcome of the nongovernmental movement throughout the world, but Julie Fisher’s broad framework and abundant detail suggest the promise and pitfalls ahead.”

—Charles H. Hamilton

Director, The J.M. Kaplan Fund