Organising and Representing the Poor in a Clientelistic Democracy: the Decline of Radical NGOs in Bangladesh
研究孟加拉国激进发展非政府组织在挑战边缘群体地位和强化民主进程中的角色，分析其在选举民主时期衰落的原因，包括庇护主义制度、捐助者转向和市场导向服务提供等三方面因素。
This paper examines the political role of radical development NGOs that emerged in Bangladesh to challenge the marginalisation of subordinate groups and strengthen democratic processes. After briefly introducing the political context of Bangladesh and its NGOs, the paper identifies and defines a radical NGO sub-sector. It then reviews the activities of these organisations during the pre-1990 military government era and during the subsequent period of electoral democracy. Some important achievements are identified, but also many failures that have led to decline, leaving behind an NGO sector dominated by credit and service delivery organisations. The paper then explains this decline by focusing on three inter-related factors: (i) an institutional setting dominated by clientelistic structures that have undermined efforts to build horizontal alliances among excluded groups in civil society, or links between NGOs and political parties; (ii) a shift in donor support from mobilisation to market-based service delivery agencies; and (iii) internal structures that have generated legitimacy and accountability problems by encouraging elite capture, co-option and personalised leadership in the radical sub-sector. It concludes with some brief reflections on the main implications of these failures.