Title: The political economy of NGOs : state formation in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh /
Authors: Fernando, Jude L.
Publisher: Pluto Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Non-governmental organizations Economic aspects Sri Lanka.; Non-governmental organizations Economic aspects Bangladesh.; Non-governmental organizations Political aspects Sri Lanka.; Non-governmental organizations Political aspects Bangladesh.; Capitalism Sri Lanka.; Capitalism Bangladesh.
Abstract: From the publisher. Fernando explores the paradoxical relationship between NGOs and capitalism, showing that supposedly progressive organizations often promote essentially the same policies and ideas as existing governments. The book examines how a diverse group of NGOs have shaped state formation in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It argues that, rather than influencing state formation for the better, NGOs have been integrated into the capitalist system and their language adopted to give traditional exploitative social relations a transformative appearance. This enlightening study will give pause to those who see NGOs as drivers of true social change and will encourage students of development studies to make a deeper analysis of state formation.
Contents: Introduction: Theorizing social change, beyond the impasse -- 1. The emergence of the unified nation-state: precolonial NGOs in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka -- 2. Welfare state to national security state: post-Independence NGO-state relations in Sri Lanka, 1948-2010 -- 3. Secularism, religion, and parallel states: post-Independence NGO-state relations in Bangladesh, 1971-2010 -- 4. The NGO industrial complex: modernizing postmodernity.