NGOs and international civil society

 The international anti-globalisation movement of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) increasingly threatens the poor in the Third World, as I have argued in my previous columns.

 But, who are they? How have they gained influence? Are their claims to represent an international civil society valid? What is their agenda? These are the questions I try and answer in this column.

 The international NGOs are pressure groups. But unlike their domestic analogues dealing with sectional interests, they deal with specific international causes, whose resonance comes from some form of moral claim. Their agenda is a Left Wing one, to extend the US New Deal Regulatory System to the international arena.

 Margurite Peeters of the American Enterprise Institute has argued that they have hijacked the economic and social programmes of the UN.