For an economic analysis of NGOs[Pour une analyse économique des ONG]

Economic theory has long opposed two mechanisms for coordinating the plans of elementary economic units: the market and the state. The first, by organizing the confrontation of supply and demand, provides an alternative indicator of choice on which each economic agent relies to make a final decision. The incentive and useful information are contained in the price. The motivation of agents is confused with the search for individual interest. Under the assumptions of pure and perfect competition, the generalized market allows the optimal allocation of production factors. The second mechanism is based on the presence of inequalities and externalities. State intervention is justified by market failures or non-existence. It constrains or directs individual behaviour according to a political expression of collective needs and produces adequate incentives through agendas, objectives, plans, price controls and the production of rules. In this state model, administrative command and control enables coordination. Here we find the canonical opposition between two social science traditions. With the first, the order that has become equilibrium is unintentional. It results from individual choices. With the second, order is achieved through recourse to authority. On a sectoral level, these two approaches discover the notions of "private" and "public". How then to consider and define the NGO object when these organizations, because of their history, motivations and principles, seem to move away from the usual mechanisms envisaged by the economy? What can be the legitimacy of an economic analysis towards organizations whose commitment describes above all "an ethical position that tries to mark reality by transforming it concretely" (Dalbera)? Published in 1998 in a first pluridisciplinary synthesis in French on Non-Governmental Organizations, this paper reviews the main characteristics of NGOs and their development operations in order to identify on a theoretical level what is specific to them.