Should NGOs be viewed as “political corporations”?

The emergence of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), along with supranational organisations, is probably the most important political development of the post‐Second World War period. Yet it is not easy to explain why they are so numerous today but relatively rare just 50 years ago. By comparing the internal organisation, diversity, brand building and internationalism of NGOs and corporations, this paper shows that NGOs are far more similar to private corporations than to any existing political institution. Moreover, the corporate model has given NGOs important advantages with which they have “out‐competed” traditional political institutions to win greater public influence, awareness and trust. In the increasingly important arena of supranational politics and treaty organisations, NGOs have exploited the flexibility of their corporate structure to become the sole players apart from governments. Thus NGOs are, in effect, the political analogues of that other highly successful late 20th institution, corporations, sharing not only their strengths, but also their weaknesses.