The Power and Limits of NGOs: A Critical Look at Building Democracy in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

by Mendelson, Sarah Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780231124911
• ISBN10: 0231124910
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Since the end of the Cold War, a virtual army of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from the United States, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe have flocked to Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. These NGOs are working on such diverse tasks as helping to establish competitive political parties, elections, and independent media, as well as trying to reduce ethnic conflict.This important book is among the few efforts to assess the impact of these international efforts to build democratic institutions. The case studies presented here provide a portrait of the mechanisms by which ideas commonly associated with democratic states have evolved in formerly communist states, revealing conditions that help as well as hurt the process.

Author Biography

Sarah E. Mendelson is Senior Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies John K. Glenn is the executive director of the Council for European Studies at Columbia University

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Contributors	xiii
Introduction: Transnational Networks and NGOs in Postcommunist Societies	1	(28)
Sarah E. Mendelson
John K. Glenn
International Actors and Women's NGOs in Poland and Hungary	29	(25)
Patrice C. McMahon
Evaluating Western Assistance to Russian Women's Organizations	54	(37)
James Richter
International Assistance and the Development of Independent Mass Media in the Czech and Slovak Republics	91	(35)
Karen Ballentine
Western and Russian Environmental NGOs: A Greener Russia?	126	(26)
Leslie Powell
Environmental NGOs in Kazakhstan: Democratic Goals and Nondemocratic Outcomes	152	(25)
Erika Weinthal
Pauline Jones Luong
International Democracy Assistance In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan: Building Civil Society from the Outside?	177	(30)
Fiona B. Adamson
International NGOs in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Attempting to Build Civil Society	207	(25)
V. P. Gagnon Jr.
Conclusion: The Power and Limits of Transnational Democracy Networks in Postcommunist Societies	232	(21)
Sarah E. Mendelson
Index	253