Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and politics in the developing world

The proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the developing, as well as the developed, world, has triggered an 'associational revolution'. Political scientists, however, have made a relatively minor contribution to the contemporary NGO literature which has evolved since the mid-1980s. This article examines some of the main political themes addressed in the NGO literature, as well as related themes in other political studies. NGOs, the article argues, make significant contributions to political life and to political change in developing countries, revealing a fertile, and hitherto neglected, research agenda.