Follow the Money: Democratic Accountability

This piece by Pranab Bardhan in Boston Review is getting some much deserved attention.  Bardhan argues that NGO's operating in developing countries lack (small "d") democratic accountability for their actions.  The piece is well worth reading on its own.

But I would extend Bardhan's argument to NGO's operating in developed countries.  My experiences with environmental non-profits in America, in many aspects, mirrors those described by Bardhan in developing nations.

In democratic societies, elected and appointed officials are ultimately accountable to voters.  For-profit corporations are accountable to their shareholders and to regulators.  To whom are non-profit corporations and philanthropic foundations accountable?  Often, the benefactors of these institutions are long dead.  They have no shareholders or elected boards.  They are subject to little or no regulation on their activities.  Yet they spend millions of dollars lobbying to influence public policy.