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Explaining cooperation between IGOs and NGOs – push factors, pull factors, and the policy cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2012

JENS STEFFEK
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Abstract

The ever closer collaboration between intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is empirically well described but poorly theorised. In this article I develop a general theoretical framework for analysing emergent patterns of cooperation between IGOs and NGOs, which may be used to generate hypotheses or guide comparatives studies. The starting point is a conception of organisational actors as purposeful but resource-dependent. The article then combines a ‘resource exchange perspective’ from organisational sociology with the model of a policy cycle from comparative politics. The result is a theoretical framework that allows to identify incentives for, as well as obstacles to, IGO-NGO cooperation along all phases of the policy cycle. In a concluding section the limits of this model and the underlying assumptions are discussed.

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Articles
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Review of International Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 993 - 1013
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Copyright © British International Studies Association 2012 

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References

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