Nongovernments: Ngos and the Political Development of the Third World (Kumarian Press Books on International Development) [Hardcover]

Julie Fisher (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565490754 | ISBN-13: 978-1565490758 | Publication Date: October 1997

This book provides a complete overview of the composition and types of NGOs that have emerged in recent years. Julie Fisher describes in detail the influence these organizations have had on political systems throughout the world and the hope their existence holds for the realization of sustainable development.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...'provides the framework that scholars have searched for in a context that students can understand.'... -- Development and Change, July/August 2000

...this book resurrects the concept of political development that has been gathering dust in the dungeons of college libraries for more than two decades, but which may be critical in putting context to the much discussed but still nebulous notions of civil society.... -- Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly Sept. 1999 volume 28 #3

Julie Fisher has written an interesting and important book on a topic, political development, which is long overdue both for a revival and fundamental revision...For me, the most useful part of the book is the sevenfold checklist for how NGOs can ensure their autonomy from government....This study makes useful addition to current debates upon the role of social capital, how it can be strengthened and the part it plays in the overall process of building a more sustainable development future....Jule Fisher has written a book to re-ignite debates about political development in the Third World. It will be of great interest to students and practioners of development alike. -- Third World Planning Review, January 2000

This work on nongovernmental organizations provides a complete overview of the composition and the types of NGOs that have emerged in recent years. The author describes in detail the influence these organiations have on political systems throughout the world. -- Abstracts of Public Administration, Development and Environment

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: Kumarian Pr Inc (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565490754
• ISBN-13: 978-1565490758
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,098,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, January 17, 2003

By 

Don D'Cruz (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World (Kumarian Press Books on International Development) (Paperback)

Fisher's book does have some interesting information in it but overall the book lacks intellectual rigour and a more hard-nosed and detached approached to her topic.

Still, the book is probably worth a read.

14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE THIRD WORLD CIVIL SOCIETY, January 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Rangeley, Maine USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World (Kumarian Press Books on International Development) (Paperback)

is the topic of Julie Fisher's second book Non Governments: NGOs and the political Development of the Third World (Kumarian Press, 14 Oakwood Ave., West Hartford CT 06119-2127 USA; 1998) Fisher does not write in an anatomical metaphor; nor does she use the jargon of complexity theory with its "self-organizing on the edge of chaos." But it is all there. A living body of networking organizations has emerged to fill the niche produced by dysfunctional post-colonial governments. A plethora of unique interdependent organs assuming specialized functions which serve the whole have almost magically become the body that promises better life for the people in developing countries, and the whole Earth. Grassroots Organizations (GROs) formed by the people in remote villages, have risen by the tens of thousand to solve local problems with local skills and local resources. They network horizontally with one another to provide mutual aid. Grassroots Support Organizations (GRSOs) have emerged independently in the cities, capitols and universities to answer their own need for social usefulness by providing information, material and services, to the remote and the disadvantaged GROs. Overseas International NonGovernmental Organizations (INGOs) have recognized the failure of Governments and U.N. run "Development Decades" to provide "direct aid" to the people in their villages. This whole global Civil Society is a new phenomena. It was not planned by the bureaucrats, not even by the participants themselves. It emerged and self-organized as a working whole within the last two decades. It is now composed of hundreds of thousands of new organizations each playing a unique role in the new body politic. Fisher writes with more humility than she deserves. The book is filled with statistics and case studies of this emerging political and social phenomenon in the Third World. Perhaps, like David Korten, who cut his teeth by leading the Third Word movement for self-help development, or like Francis Moore-Lappé, who spent her early years dissecting the myths of Third World hunger, Fisher will next turn her microscope and scalpel to dissecting the emerging Civil Society in the industrial world. For it is the Industrial Culture's transition to Gaian Cultures which is required if human civilization is to continue, and it is our Civil Society which must lead, and is leading, the way.