Late developers in global civil society: Domestic barriers, international socialization and the emergence of international NGOs in Japan

Over the past three decades, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have proliferated and become active players in world politics. Although there is now a growing body of scholarly work on the role of INGOs in international relations, there has been little empirical study of how and why they emerged in the first place. This dissertation looks at this question and seeks to explain two patterns: (1) differing levels of INGOs among industrialized countries; and (2) overall increases across all industrialized countries in the number and activeness of INGOs since the late 1980s.; The dissertation finds that political variables at the domestic and international levels have been key determinants of both patterns. At the domestic level, state policies and structures---legal and fiscal regulations, the existence of state support in the form of subsidies and grants, and the degree of openness of state institutions---explain variations in INGO sector size across countries. Since the 1980s, however, active promotion of INGOs at the international level by international institutions and activist states---through funding, increased access to the UN and other intergovernmental organizations, and the emergence of pro-NGO norms---has become an important source of INGO formation and growth worldwide.; Japan is an interesting case since INGOs have only appeared in greater numbers there since the late 1980s. Using the cases of international development NGOs and environmental advocacy INGOs, the dissertation shows how unfavorable state policies at the domestic level have discouraged the formation of INGOs in Japan. To understand the burst of new INGO activeness in Japan since the late 1980s, on the other hand, the dissertation turns to international level explanations. In the 1980s and 1990s, as Japanese state actors were socialized to new international pro-INGO norms, Japanese state policies changed and became more supportive of INGOs. New international opportunities such as international funding, political participation in international institutions, and international alliances with other INGOs were also actively used by Japanese activists and led to more INGOs. Finally, with the growth of international conferences sponsored by international organizations, increases in the transnational diffusion of ideas also stimulated INGO formation in Japan.