Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society (published in Jacobin)

Just in time for Trump's/Musk's crushing of USAID, if from a radically different perspective

“[…]Alarm at money in politics is not limited to the United States. In 2021, Austrians were part shocked, part grimly amused by the discovery that Thomas Schmid, a senior political appointee in the Ministry of Finance, had texted tax officials the memorable line “Don’t forget, you are the whore of the rich” when urging favorable treatment for a politically connected entrepreneur. Soon more evidence surfaced: in return for convenient laws and pliable judicial appointees, the country’s big businesses had offered political donations and lucrative seats on company boards. In another chat, the formidable moral philosopher Schmid said something we all know: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

Money and power are inseparably connected, and money flowing from powerful interest groups therefore needs to be publicized, thoroughly scrutinized, and regulated. We know this. But we do not apply this knowledge when we funnel our money into the NGOs and political systems of the Global South.[…]”

Read the full piece - about lessons on big money in our domestic politics and how they might help us understand the politics and psychology of powerful Western states’ money in poor nations’ civil society, and how the latter is a symptom of the unipolar moment, about the US, Austria, Georgia and more - at Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society.

An original German version was published in Jacobin’s German magazine in fall 2024 (paywalled).