When do NGOs make differences in world politics? An analysis of the United States NGO policy advocacy for international environmental treaties

This study aims at analyzing the major determinant factor of success and failure in the efforts of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to influence international environmental policy outcomes. Given the growing role and impact of NGOs in world affairs, it is interesting and important to specify the conditions under which the NGOs make differences in world politics. Among many different areas and levels of NGO involvement in world politics, this study focuses on examining policy advocacy of the U.S. environmental NGOs to shape their government's policy regarding two international environmental treaties---the Montreal Protocol (1987) for ozone layer protection and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992).; Drawn largely from three bodies of literature, this study probes three factors conditioning the efficacy of NGO policy advocacy. The first factor, suggested by the pluralist interest group theory and the resource mobilization theory of social movements, concerns the human and organizational resources of the NGOs. Four elements of NGO resources---memberships, revenues, leaderships, and expertise---are analyzed. The second and third factors are pertinent to what the political process approach to social movements calls the political opportunity structure. The second factor is an availability of NGO access to policy-making processes, while the third factor is a configuration of allies and opponents within the policy networks concerned with each issue. For the access factor, this study examines degrees of NGO access to both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. federal government in each case. For the alliance and opposition configuration, this study measures and compares the degrees of support/opposition displayed by major participants in policy deliberations of each issue toward NGO advocacy.; The analysis shows that while the resource and access factors have not much affected the efficacy of NGO advocacy reflected in the two environmental treaties, the configuration of allies and opponents played a crucial role. Based on these findings, this study makes some theoretical suggestions for future studies of NGO policy advocacy and also practical suggestions for more effective NGO advocacy.