hecate0925_chen — 2017-01-12 04:22:11 UTC

The topic of week 7 is ‘Institutions Organizations and the Individual’. There are 3 key elements and relent concept that i have summarized. First is NGO which means Non-government organization. It can be defined as not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions. They are now funded by donations but some avoid formal funding and are run primarily by volunteers. There are some good examples of NGOs that we discussed last week. First is Red Cross society of China, which aims to helping the refugees and providing assistance to disaster victims. Their fund comes mainly from government, public welfare fund and donation. My personal experience about this is that when natural disasters such as earthquakes occur, we can send donations to the disaster areas through the Red Cross. Nowadays, the Red Cross Society of China is widely involved in social affairs and has become a typical representative of many non-profit organizations.

The second key element is ‘NGOs and Democracy’. Democracy refers to a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. It describes about NGOs plays a significant role as ‘mediating structure’ between the ‘State Sphere’ and ‘The Economy Sphere’. The State Sphere means the centralized authority consists of institutions, such as government administrations, legal system and police force. NGOs also contribute to the Market sphere and the sphere of civil society. The civil society is comprised of groups or organizations working in the interest of the citizens but operating outsides of the government and for-profit sections. Organizations and institutions that make up civil society include labour unions, non-profit organizations, churches, and other service agencies that provide an important service to society but generally ask for very little in return. I have read an article written by Ottaway and Carothers in 2000 which names civil society aid and democracy promotion. It states that as public Expenditure has declined, the NGO sector has massively benefited from taking on a service-delivery role. At the same time, as civil society organisations, NGOs are a convenient channel through which official agencies can promote political pluralism.

The third key element is the conflict between NGOs and governments or corporation. Non-governmental organizations are the important force, the cause of the conflict mainly is the operation of NGOs may threaten the government. An example of this is, in China which is different with Western countries, in the interaction between the government and NGOs, the two are in an obvious right-unequal status. The government have an absolute dominant position in the political forces and the allocation of power resources. Those factors lead to a conflict between NGOs and the government or corporations.

Image reference:

Mr. Shea’s Course Hub, N,d, NGOs and IGOs Unit, viewed 10 December 2016,<https://sites.google.com/a/suffieldstudent.org/shsdigitalplayground/international-relations/ngos-and-igos-unit >

Reference:

Ottaway, M. and Carothers, T., 2000, Funding virtue: civil society aid and democracy promotion, Carnegie Endowment.

hecate0925_chen — 2017-01-12 04:22:55 UTC

Assignment 1- Hecate CHEN by Yan CHEN