Skip to main content

How NGOs Respond to Systemic and Provoked Gaps

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Weak Institutions and the Governance Dilemma

Part of the book series: International Series on Public Policy ((ISPP))

Abstract

Based on the Armenian and Georgian lessons, this chapter identifies two empirically grounded gap varieties, provoked gaps and systemic gaps. It then starts theorizing about the implications of gaps for NGOs. It does so, first, by highlighting the differential exercise of core functions of NGOs (service provision, advocacy and innovation), and, second, by conceiving cross-case patterns of ambiguous organizational behavior as instances of means-ends decoupling and successful failure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bachrach, Peter, and Morton S. Baratz. 1963. Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical Framework. American Political Science Review 57 (3): 632–643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1970. Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernhard, Michael. 2015. Chronic Instability and the Limits of Path Dependence. Perspectives on Politics 13 (4): 976–991.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binder, Amy. 2007. For Love and Money: Organizations’ Creative Responses to Multiple Environmental Logics. Theory and Society 36: 547–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass, Jennifer N. 2016. Allies or Adversaries. NGOs and the State in Africa. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromley, Patricia, and Walter W. Powell. 2012. From Smoke and Mirrors to Walking the Talk: Decoupling in the Contemporary World. The Academy of Management Annals 6 (1): 483–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheskin, Ammon, and Luke March. 2015. State—Society Relations in Contemporary Russia: New Forms of Political and Social Contention. East European Politics 31 (3): 261–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheterian, Vicken. 2008. Georgia’s Rose Revolution: Change or Repetition? Tension between State-Building and Modernization Projects. Nationalities Papers 36 (4): 689–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Distelhorst, Greg. 2017. The Power of Empty Promises: Quasi-Democratic Institutions and Activism in China. Comparative Political Studies 50 (4): 464–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, Michael, and David Hulme. 1996. Too Close for Comfort? The Impact of Official Aid on Nongovernmental Organizations. World Development 24 (6): 961–973.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falkenhain, Mariella. 2019. Dividing Lines: Understanding the Creation and Replication of Fragmentations among NGOs in Hybrid Regimes. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 1–11 (online first). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00185-6.

  • Friedrich, Carl J. 1941. Constitutional Government and Democracy: Theory and Practice in Europe and America. Brown and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghazaryan, Armen. 2017. A Self-Repeating Crisis: The Systemic Dysfunctionality of Armenian Politics. Caucasus Analytical Digest 91: 5–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale, Henry E. 2015. Patronal Politics. Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmke, Gretchen. 2010. The Origins of Institutional Crises in Latin America. American Journal of Political Science 54 (3): 737–750.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kupatadze, Alexander. 2015. Political Corruption in Eurasia: Understanding Collusion between States, Organized Crime and Business. Theoretical Criminology 19 (2): 198–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauth, Hans-Joachim, and Jenniver Sehring. 2009. Putting Deficient Rechtsstaat on the Research Agenda: Reflections on Diminished Subtypes. Comparative Sociology 8: 165–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky, Steven, and MarĂ­a Victoria Murillo. 2009. Variation in Institutional Strength. Annual Review of Political Science 12 (1): 115–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky, Steven, and Maria Victoria Murillo. 2012. Building Institutions on Weak Foundations: Lessons from Latin America. Journal of Democracy 24 (2): 93–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky, Steven, and Dan Slater. 2011. Ruling Politics: The Formal and Informal Foundations of Institutional Reform. 1–31. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/ruling_politics/files/ruling_politics_intro-finalcompletedraft.pdf.

  • Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan Way. 2002. Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy 13 (2): 51–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, David. 2017. Organising and Representing the Poor in a Clientelistic Democracy: The Decline of Radical NGOs in Bangladesh. The Journal of Development Studies 53: 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losaberidze, David. 2010. An Assessment of Georgian Civil Society. Report of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index 2010. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/144993/40_631_536365_Civicus-GeorgiaACR-eng%20(Sep%202010).pdf.

  • Lukes, Steven. 2005. Power: A Radical View. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, James, and Kathleen Thelen. 2010a. A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change. In Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power, ed. J. Mahoney and K. Thelen, 1–37. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010b. Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, Marshall W., and Lynne G. Zucker. 1989. Permanently Failing Organizations. SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, Lincoln. 2009. Compromising Democracy: State Building in Saakashvili’s Georgia. Central Asian Survey 28 (2): 171–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Open Society Georgia Foundation. 2014. Crime and Excessive Punishment: The Prevalence and Causes of Human Rights Abuse in Georgia’s Prisons. https://www.osgf.ge/files/2015/Publication/Final_Report_ENG.pdf.

  • Pierson, Paul. 1996. The Path to European Integration. A Historical Institutionalist Analysis. Comparative Political Studies 29 (2): 123–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004. Politics in Time. History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Raik, Kristi. 2006. Promoting Democracy Through Civil Society: How to Step Up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood (237). CEPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rixen, Thomas, and Lora Anne Viola. 2015. Putting Path Dependence in Its Place: Toward a Taxonomy of Institutional Change. Journal of Theoretical Politics 27 (2): 301–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seibel, Wolfgang. 1996. Successful Failure. An Alternative View on Organizational Coping. American Behavioral Scientist 39 (8): 1011–1024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Successful Failure: An Alternative View on Organizational Coping. In When Things Go Wrong. Organizational Failures and Breakdowns, ed. H.K. Anheier, 91–104. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Slade, Gavin. 2015. Violence as Information During Prison Reform: Evidence from the Post-Soviet Region. British Journal of Criminology 56 (5): 937–955.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, Wolfgang, and Kathleen Thelen. 2005. Introduction: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. In Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies, ed. W. Streeck and K. Thelen, 1–39. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, Kathleen. 2009. Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. British Journal of Industrial Relations 47 (3): 471–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Way, Lucan A. 2002. The Dilemmas of Reform in Weak States: The Case of Post-Soviet Fiscal Decentralization. Politics & Society 30 (4): 579–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Falkenhain, M. (2020). How NGOs Respond to Systemic and Provoked Gaps. In: Weak Institutions and the Governance Dilemma. International Series on Public Policy . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39742-5_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics