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The Institutional Ecology Of Ngos: Applying Hansmann To International Development, Johanna Kalb

Articles

While initially heralded as the "magic bullet" for development, NGOs have come under increasing criticism for their failure to deliver "development" as promised. Despite the plethora of new critiques, little systematic work has theorized how NGOs actually operate within the least developed countries as economic and social institutions, and what structural conditions are necessary for NGOs to operate successfully. Drawing on existing theories of the nonprofit form in a functioning three-sector economy, the Article argues the absence of certain economic conditions has a negative impact on NGO efficiency and efficacy. For NGOs to succeed, they must exist in an economy …