NGO Structural Adaptation to Funding Requirements and Prospects for Democracy: The Case of the European Union

Most studies on voluntary organisations and advocacy groups focus on their contribution to democracy through participation in the policy-making process. The uniqueness of this study consists in shifting the emphasis to participatory democracy at the implementation stage of the policy process. We argue that public donors may affect the democratic potential of voluntary organisations at this stage. To this purpose, we explore the European Union's structuring effects. Firstly, the European Union manufactures a non-governmental organisation (NGO) landscape through a top-down process of redistribution of resources. Secondly, our attention is drawn to NGOs' adaptations of EU requirements, which entails a transformation process often at odds with participatory practices. In order to grasp the European Union's differential impact, we include in our analysis two sectors (humanitarian NGOs and social voluntary organisations) and two Member States (France and Spain).