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On the Ethics and Economics of Organized Citizenship

Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico, ferlec{at}hotmail.com

Nongovernmental organizations, charities and civil associations that purport to provide care, education and other ethical services without a profit motive represent themselves to the public as altruistically exercising citizenship. Their moral credentials seem impeccable. Yet many things are not what they appear to be, or what they should be, in what we may call ‘organized citizenship’. To follow the trail, we might make use of modern economics, whose recognition of ‘market failures’ has given way (via public choice theory) to the increasingly accepted reality of ‘government failure’. It may now be time to admit that there is also something like ‘civic failure’. For if all three sectors of society—business, government and civil organizations—are needed, they are also all imperfect.

Key Words: civil society • economic theory • ethics • good intentions • NGOs • third sector • unintended consequences

Organization, Vol. 13, No. 4, 569-587 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508406065106


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