French NGOs and the state: Paving the way for a new partnership?

Abstract

This paper asks whether French non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have fallen into line with the trend towards partnership with the state that has marked the Northern non-profit sector, most notably Anglo-American NGOs, over the last two decades. It shows how French NGO-state relations were poor over the early post-colonial years. It then demonstrates how, over the global era, the French government has made overtures and how NGOs, particularly developmental NGOs (NGDOs), have embraced these legal, financial and consultative concessions, while refusing to see them as the basis of a mutually consenting partnership. Finally, it explains the continuing lack of French NGDOstate rapport in terms of Resource Dependence theory.

The Impact of Governmental Policy on the Effective Operation of CSOs: A French Case Study

“…Further, of the four possible responses to power dependence, it appears that the most palatable (but resource-consuming) is to cultivate new relationships. This was supported in Cumming's (2009) study, but in collaboration with arguing for greater power. Froelich's (1999) review also supported new (funding) relationships in order to diversify revenue.…”

“…Cumming (2009) notes resource dependency is particularly pertinent to CSO studies seeking to focus on a CSO acting in its own right. Further, the use of this theory to explain Cumming's (2008Cumming's ( , 2009) French studies, and that of Froelich (1999) in the United States allows comparisons between this study and others into CSOs' reactions to their environment.…”

“…(from 1946), spawned day-care, social services for employees and their families, and training and employment programs for others in the community; a further employer tax from 1971 also subsidizes continuing education schemes for citizens (Archambault 2001 (Cumming 2009). …”

“…A key theory in CSO scholarship over recent years has been resource dependence, or organizations' abilities to acquire and maintain resources (Pfeffer and Salancik 2003). In particular, from the limited literature analyzing CSOs and public funding change, Cumming (2008Cumming ( , 2009) understands that CSOs are resource dependent but may respond differently to environmental change. Cumming (2009) notes resource dependency is particularly pertinent to CSO studies seeking to focus on a CSO acting in its own right.…”