Government-NGO Relationship In The Field Of Public Service:A Comparative Perspective

In the field of public services provision, NGOs are playing an increasing important role. Inevitably they need to interact with the government in one way or other in their daily activities, as both of them are main actors in social governance. However, due to the different historical contexts and ideologies, that interaction between government and NGOs is presented in different patterns in different societies. This study aims to analyze the nature of those patterns of relationship by employing a cross-national and historical comparative approach. The comparison between cases of the United States, France and Germany, as well as a separate case of China, has illustrated that the nature of government-NGO cooperation in the field of public services is, indeed, a balance of power, responsibility and interests between government, NGOs and other interests groups or individuals.This dissertation consists of six chapters. In this introduction, the background of the research on government-NGO relationship is provided first. Also presented are the statement of the research question, hypotheses, the objectives of this research, and the justification for the choice of research method and strategy, as well as the overall structure. Chapter2then moves on to review the existing theories regarding government-NGO relationships, both in western countries and China. It begins with an attempt to untangle the various definitions of NGO in different contexts and clarify the terms used here. It then goes on to discuss the related theories and typologies in a chronological order. The purpose of this part is to provide a theoretical framework for this dissertation and to link it with the existing analyses on government-NGO relations, particularly in the field of public services. In Chapter3, the government-NGO relationships in the welfare states of United States, France and Germany are described respectively, from a historical perspective. It looks into the legal treatments on NGOs, and the dynamics of these relationship patterns in those countries. The aim of this chapter is to examine the impact of different ideologies on the government-NGO relationships in these countries. The two different ideologies are,’pluralism’and’corporatism’, which have been persisting through history. It is also the expectation here, to help better understand the nature of government-NGO relations. Chapter4illustrates a case study of EADA, a service delivery NGO in China. Following that, Chapter5presents a comparative analysis on the different cooperation styles between the government and NGOs in the United States, France and Germany, and China from a meso-level. Although it is beyond the scope of this dissertation to investigate the nature of government-NGO relationships in all the fields across all the countries, it is the ambition here to identify that, if there is a common one, of the three welfare states and China, in the area of public services. It also draws some implications for the service delivery NGOs. Chapter6concludes by a brief review of the findings and then moves to compare it with the previous researches reviewed in Chapter2. It also addresses the limitations of this study, as well as the challenges for future studies in this area.