Doctoral Dissertation Research: Explaining Variation in Advocacy Efforts by International Nongovernmental Organizations

国际非政府组织（INGO）的宣传工作侧重于某些问题，而不是其他问题，伤害的程度并不能解释这种差异。非政府组织围绕一些道德问题动员起来，却忽视了其他具有类似客观特征的问题。该项目将通过一种混合方法研究设计来检验对问题关注的差异的可能解释，该研究设计探索非政府组织在全球卫生和武装冲突两个问题领域的宣传工作，这两个问题都具有重大的公共重要性。了解国际非政府组织对问题和战略的选择是很重要的，因为国际非政府组织长期以来一直被认为是国际规范变革的有力推动力。通过它们的做法，它们对遵守国际法律标准作出了重要贡献，鉴于执行国际规范的困难，这一点尤其重要。本项目发展了一个非政府组织倡导选择的理论，强调影响其行为的制约因素和战略考虑。该项目假设，机构生存动机激励非政府组织对其捐助者群体的偏好以及他们的需求的预期可能性作出反应。实现。此外，该理论强调了微观层面动力学的重要性。国际非政府组织的议程以路径依赖的方式发展，以前的选择约束和实现了当前的议程。接下来，该项目假设问题获得组织支持，因为组织更有可能做其他组织所做的事情。为了分析非政府组织的行动主义、其议题选择的原因和路径依赖，本项目构建了第一个定量数据库，可以对特定议题的非政府组织行动主义进行统计分析。对于那些希望了解国际非政府组织如何选择议题的人来说，这个数据库将是有用的，这对许多决策者来说是一个重要问题。

International Nongovernmental Organizations' (INGO) focus advocacy efforts on some issues and not others, and the extent of harm does not explain this variation. INGOs mobilize around some issues of moral concern, but neglect others with similar objective characteristics. The project will test potential explanations of variation in attention to issues via a mixed methods research design that explores INGO advocacy effort in the two issue areas of global health and armed conflicts, both matters of great public import. INGOS' choice of problems and strategies is important to understand because INGOs have long been recognized as potent drivers of international normative change. Through their practices they have made critical contributions to compliance with international legal standards, particularly significant given the difficulty in enforcing international norms. This project develops a theory of INGO advocacy choices that emphasizes the constraints and strategic considerations affecting their behavior. The project hypothesizes that institutional survival motives incentivize INGOs to respond to the preferences of their donor constituency, as well as to the expected likelihood of their demands? realization. In addition, the theory underlines the importance of micro level dynamics. INGOs' agendas evolve in a path dependent way, where previous choices constrain and enable current agenda. Next, this project hypothesizes that issues gain organizational support because organizations are more likely to do what other organizations do. To analyze the activism of INGOs, reasons for their issue choice, and path dependence, this project constructs the first quantitative database allowing for the statistical analysis of issue-specific INGO activism. The database will be useful for those who wish to understand how INGOs choose issues, an important question for many policymakers.