to tackle theoretical and empirical questions entailed by these growing roles. This
chapter provides a broad overview of that literature. Section 2 gives a historical
overview of the rise of INGOs and other non-governmental cross-border ties.
Section 3 reviews the deWnitional debates. Section 4 discusses the research on
whether, when, and why these non-governmental bodies increasingly matter to
the conduct of global aVairs, in what ways, and under what conditions. The chapter
concludes with a discussion of possible research agendas.
2 Historical Overview
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Although much of the literature dates from the 1990 s, INGOs and other border-
crossing elements of civil society have played a role in global aVairs for much
longer than scholars have written about them (Florini 2000 ). Rudolph ( 1997 )
points out that ‘‘Religious communities are among the oldest of the transnational:
SuWorders, Catholic missionaries, Buddhist monks carried work and praxis across
vast spaces before those places became nation states or even states.’’ Religious
organizations provided the impetus behind some of theWrst formal cross-border
ties among NGOs in the nineteenth-century campaign to end slavery. NGOs
dedicated to ending the slave trade date to 1775 , with the establishment of the
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, followed a decade
later by the British Society for EVecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and
the French Socie ́te ́des Amis des Noirs (Charnovitz 1997 ). The links among the
movements solidiWed in 1839 with the establishment of the British and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, ‘‘theWrst transnational moral entrepreneur—religious move-
ments aside—to play a signiWcant role in world politics.’’ 1
Civil society has existed in something approaching its current form since the rise
of the nation-state system more than three centuries ago. The term was used during
the Scottish Enlightenment, conceived as ‘‘a realm of solidarity held together by the
force of moral sentiments and natural aVections’’ strong enough to root individuals
in a community of natural sympathy and collective action (Seligman 1992 , 33 ).
Over time, the focus of political philosophy shifted from ‘‘civil society’’ to
‘‘citizenship,’’ and the term ‘‘civil society’’ faded away.
But while the term fell out of use, the reality continued to grow. As states grew
stronger, they required an industrial base, a legal infrastructure, and a citizenry
1 Betty Fladeland,Men and Brothers: Anglo-American Antislavery Cooperation( 1972 ), p. 258 , cited in
Charnovitz 1997 , 192.
674 ann florini