摘要："Are NGOs overrated". There is only one possible answer to a question like that: "It all depends." It depends on the NGOs concerned, the contexts they work in, the type of work they do, and the standards we use to judge them. In a world of discredited governments and unaccountable corporations it might seem especially harsh to single NGOs out for criticism. Other contributions to this issue of CICE are right to point out the dangers of over-generalizing in the NGO debate. Mark Ginsburg (this issue) contrasts the very different qualities of grassroots movements and non-profit businesses; Lynn Ilon (this issue) separates market from non-market values and the transformative potential they offer; Steven Klees (this issue) maintains--correctly--that "some of the promise of NGOs is clearly being fulfilled"; and Robert Arnove, and Gita Steiner-Khamsi (this issue) identify numerous examples of individual organizations that have not been co-opted by the agendas of states or donors
