{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "One of the names most in need of rectification is \"NGO\".\nNominally, this TLA stands for \"Non-government organization\". However,...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/670055422350229504/", "html": "

nornagest:

samueldays:

One of the names most in need of rectification is “NGO”.

Nominally, this TLA stands for “Non-government organization”. However, a family bakery is an example of an organization which does not have anything to do with government, such bakeries existed millennia ago and will likely continue to exist after all current governments, and I have never heard anyone refer to a bakery or similar small business as a “NGO”.

On the other hand, “NGO” is used about organizations like the Open Society Foundations, and the organizations which it funds in turn with its billions of dollars.


The OSF describes itself (itselves?) thus:

THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS WORK TO BUILD VIBRANT AND INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACIES WHOSE GOVERNMENTS ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO THEIR CITIZENS.

The Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, are the world\u2019s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights.

Perhaps their critics might describe them differently, but even if we take them at their word, the OSF are very much in the governance business. The OSF are working to replace some kinds of government with other kinds of government, as well as trying to influence how existing governments behave, and alter the laws of states. Calling this “non-government” is misleading. It’s like saying an opposition party in a democracy is “non-government” because it’s out of power - conflation between “government” in the sense of a coalition government, and “government” in the sense of a governing structure.

A better term for such so-called “NGOs” might be crypto-government or perhaps para-government organization. Like para-military. Similarly to how a paramilitary organization is not The Army of a country, but performs many military functions, a paragovernment organization is not The State of a country, but performs many government functions.

If you want to keep the N in NGO, though, there’s a different thing which these NGOs are: non-elected. The people of Examplia didn’t vote to have the Open Society Foundations come in and start meddling in governance. In Hungary, even, people voted for a guy who wanted them to stop meddling. This has not stopped them from meddling - if anything, the OSF has gotten crankier about the people of Hungary voting ‘wrong’. Perhaps NEGO: non-elected government organization. It’s not even appointed by an elected body.

(A few"non-government organizations" are in fact appointed by elected bodies, and being organized by the government, earn the bizarre appellation of GONGO.)

We can generalize this non-electedness to other forms of government and their legitimising principles. If a NGO is operating in a stratocracy, it’s probably non-soldiers. If a NGO is operating in a theocracy, it’s probably non-holy or non-anointed. The term for this generalization eludes me - do any readers happen to know it?

Reblogging for “para-government”.

\n

bakeries millennia ago were actually pretty close to the government

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