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International Nongovernmental Organizations

WHILE INTERNATIONAL governmental organizations (IGOs) have emerged as decisive in structuring political relations and shaping the behavior of state actors, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) do not occupy formal positions of power. Instead, INGOs collectively function as an important cultural force, socializing the global citizenry with world society principles. And unlike IGOs, whose members are typically nation-states, INGOs connect individuals and private groups from different countries who share a common set of goals or interests. Despite the difference in formal power between IGOs and INGOs, the latter nevertheless serve as important mechanisms for transmitting world culture, and have proven instrumental in the area of development and poverty relief.

Transmitting World Culture

Sociologists have recently detected the presence of a world culture that acts as an autonomous force on na-tion-states. These sociologists suggest that culture is organized at the global level, noting the isomorphism that countries exhibit across a wide range of organizational features.

These organizational models include the widespread adoption of universalistic welfare systems, a universal rise in state authority and organizational activity, the expansion of women's suffrage, a growing concern for democracy and human rights, a growing conception of individualism, liberalized same-sex policies, environmentalism, the spread of science and models that privilege scientific authority, as well as the expansion of mass education along with a standardized curriculum.

One important mechanism that triggers the spread of these models is a state's linkage to international organizations. Cultural models are more likely to, and will more quickly, penetrate countries with a large number of membership ties to international organizations. Ultimately, countries that are embedded in world society are “socialized” to adopt organizational models that adhere to world cultural principles.

INGOs, in particular, are important enactors and carriers of world culture. The rapid increase in INGO membership suggests that a world culture is indeed forming through these organizations. INGOs have expanded dramatically, from approximately 200 active INGOs in 1900 to almost 4,000 in 1980, to over 5,000 by 1995, with the vast majority of this rapid expansion occurring during the post-World War II era.

Diffusing a Logic of Privatization

INGOs have become well-known for taking on a humanitarian character and spreading progressive values across the world. INGOs often serve as transnational bodies that set global standards and principles, and broadly represent all of humanity vis-à-vis states and other actors of transnational prominence. Many tackle social problems and are characterized as encompassing a grassroots, or social movement, quality.

Amnesty International (AI) and the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Red Cross) represent two of the world's most prominent INGOs. Founded in 1961 and headquartered in London, AI's organizational goal is to secure the release of political prisoners (those nonviolent individuals who are imprisoned simply for their beliefs and/or demographic characteristics) as well as call an end to the torture and execution of all prisoners. The Red Cross, currently headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was founded in 1919 and coordinates humanitarian activities with the goal of preventing and alleviating human suffering.

However, with no formal authority, INGOs cannot impose their respective goals or principles on global actors. Rather the diffusion of these norms and cultural models must occur more informally, through gradual socialization that stems from contact with, or membership in, these INGOs. Quite often, INGOs enjoy great success in coopting transnational governing bodies and state machineries to formally adopt their cultural models. However, these models are often loosely coupled compared to the way they are actually implemented. For example, INGOs were involved in the United Nations' (UN) General Assembly adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. However, many of the articles are repeatedly violated by member states without any formal consequences. Also, while the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1975, this declaration has been largely ignored by some UN member states where violent practices have continued.

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