International Nongovernmental Organizations, Quasi-Forms

The “quasi” aspect of the term quasi international nongovernmental organizations (QINGOs) refers to cases where the private nongovernmental character of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) is affected by its relationship with public governmental actors, including subnational governmental bodies (e.g., city councils), national governmental bodies (states), and international organizations (e.g., the European Union or the United Nations). The quasi term may also be used to describe cases where INGOs—ordinarily not-for-profit—overlap with for-profit actors (private firms). The term has utility for acknowledging the overlap of multiple categories of agency in global politics, emphasizing the shifting character of global governance in which the public-private distinction has radically altered. Equally, where public governmental bodies contribute to the emergence of INGOs, a more nuanced picture of the relation between states and these non-state actors may be drawn.

Acknowledgment of the overlap between public and private actors at the global level is based on substantial literature identifying the role of private agency—both for-profit (such as private firms) and not-for-profit (e.g., a development nongovernmental organization)—contributing to the production of global public goods, such as private initiatives to govern standards for auditing accountancy firms (e.g., the International Accounting Standards Board or the International Federation of Accountants) or certifying minimal labor standards within the coffee industry (e.g., the Fairtrade Labelling Organization). Such research has contributed greatly to a more detailed understanding of global governance in which the primacy of nation-states is questioned and owes much to the work of Susan Strange—a pioneer within the field of international political economy who firmly established the need to study how global politics is shaped by private capital. Although private actors who are active within the production of global governance are not QINGOs, the term has utility in describing the bodies created by those private actors to enact governance on their behalf.