Property Rights Enforcement by Other Means: The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations

Abstract

"In this paper I examine the role of one set of 'privately-ordered institutions' non-governmental organizations and the role they play in enforcing property rights. The paper will proceed in four parts. First, I examine the role of NGOs in the post-independence African state and the proliferation of the non-governmental sector in the past two decades. Then, I discuss the role of NGOs in enforcing property rights, giving concrete examples from Uganda. The third section of the paper will evaluate the effectiveness of NGOs in property rights enforcement and their social welfare provision contrasted with that of the state. The paper will conclude with a discussion of how we might view the encroachment of NGOs into the area of law enforcement and specifically into the economically important realm of property rights."