Historical contingency and path dependence in bottom-up democratisation through NGOs: a case study from Pakistan. Issue 7 (2nd October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Owais, Syed
• Is Part Of: Development in practice. Volume 30:Issue 7(2020)
• Page Start: 953
• Page End: 964
• Publication Date: 2020-10-02
• Subjects: Aid – Aid effectiveness, Accountability -- Civil society – NGOs, Participation -- South Asia; Technical assistance -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Economic assistance -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 338.91091724
• DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2020.1762543
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0961-4524

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article presents an institutionalist account of historically structured formal and informal institutions and the politico-economic factors that influenced the efforts of a Pakistani NGO (FORDP) to democratise rural communities. Using interviews with FORDP staff members, the article demonstrates that its bottom-up democratisation has gradually succumbed to structures of inequality at the micro level and to macro politico-economic changes. At the macro level, Pakistan's alliance in the "war on terror" and the post-2005 earthquake relief efforts translated into large-scale NGO interventions at the grassroots. However, as these were patronage-based, they made it harder for FORDP to instil long-lasting change in communities.