Development critique: From evil state to civil society

The last two decades have seen the proliferation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the underdeveloped world. Since the development enterprise involves the exclusion of the third world masses, civil society's inclusion takes the form of partnerships with NGOs as "apolitical" and "responsible" representatives of disenfranchised people. In many small countries, they have, as "genuine reprsentatives" of civil society, acquired a quasi autonomous status, the larger among them being treated practically on par with the state, particularly by multilateral aid organisations. It is only recently that the activities of these development organisations have attracted critical scrutiny, and some of these studies see NGOs as purveyors of donor country agendas and various other formulae that pass by the name of international consensus. The historian, Akira Iriye, for instance, argues that more than any other US enterprise in the 20th century, NGOs have shaped the "American Century" by transporting the core American values of association, civic culture and democracy to the rest of the world. While Iriye's conclusions on the origins and forms of NGOs are debatable, his recognition of the growing significance of NGOs in modulating the North-South relations is incontestable. NGOs have become crucial agents in sustaining the rhetoric on democracy, development, civil society, human rights and good governance around the world. These dominant discourses become powerful lubricants facilitating the day-to-day interaction between the donors and the recipients.

Nepal's own experience and transformation in the past decades is intelligible only against the backdrop of this transnational flow of ideas and agendas.