Meng Ye, Georgia State University & Andrew Heiss, Georgia State University
China’s 2016 Overseas NGO (ONGO) Law is part of a larger global trend of increased legal restrictions on international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs). A growing body of research analyzes the broad effects of this crackdown on INGOs, finding a divergence in formal de jure laws and the de facto implementation of those laws. The causes and mechanisms of this divergence remain less explored.
In a recent paper authored by Meng Ye and Andrew Heiss, they use the case of China to explore how political demands to both restrict and embrace INGOs have shaped the international nonprofit sector in the five years since the ONGO Law came into effect. They argue that to bolster regime stability, governments use civil society laws as policy tools to influence INGO behavior. They test this argument through Bayesian analysis of administrative data from all formally registered INGOs, complemented by a comparative case study of two environmental INGOs. They find that INGO issue areas, missions, and pre-existing relationships with local government officials influence the degree of operating space available for INGOs. Their findings offer insights into the practical effects of INGO restrictions and the dynamics of closing civic space worldwide.