Quantitative measures available

Comparative Evaluation of Different Types of International Organization (Part #2)

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A number of possible available measures are tentatively listed in Table 1. This is structured as though comparison were possible or useful between the four categories -- which remains to be seen.

Table 1: Some quantitative measures available
		Nations	IGOs	MNCs	NGOs
A.1.	Individuals	population	combined population	consumers product purchases	individuals represented
2.	employees	population (working population)	staff	staff	Staff (including voluntary)
B.1.	fund exchange with constituency	taxes	contributions	sales	Nonprofit income
2.	operating budget	Admin. budget	admin. budget	admin. budget	admin. budget
3.	program budget	programs	programs	programs	programs
C.1.	no of countries represented by individuals	-------	countries represented	countries of consumer sales	Nationalities represented
2.	no of continents represented by individuals	-----	continents represented	continents of consumer sales	Continents represented
D.1.	no of countries of program action	no of bilateral agreements	No. of countries in which there are national programs	no of countries within which business is done	No. of countries in which there are national programs
2.	no of countries with operating offices	no of countries in which there are consulates, embassies, trade missions, etc	no of countries with national IGO representative or field offices	no of countries with sales or manufacturing offices	no. of countries with operating tries in tries with tries with tries with
E.1.	country source of funds	no of countries from which imports are received	no of countries contributing	no of countries with which business is done	no. of countries contributing

Comparison might, for example, be useful for empirical program decision-making without being of great theoretical significance.

1. Nations: Nations are frequently ranked according to population, GNP, etc-,

2. Multinational enterprises: MNCs are frequently ranked according to sales (cf. the Fortune list of 500 companies, etc.). The author has attempted a crude ranking of 600 MNCs according to a measure of "internationality" based on nature and number of subsidiaries in foreign countries relative to those in the head quarter country (1).

3. Intergovernmental organizations: No attempt appears to have been made to rank IGOs.

4. International NGOs: No attempt has been made to rank international NGOs (2)

In Table 2 is reproduced a list of NGOs in order of mass membership or individuals represented indirectly, via national bodies.

In Table 3 some NGOs are listed in order of the number of countries represented.

In Table 4 some NGOs are listed in order of their budget (or funds handled).

Examination of these lists brought out several obstacles to further programs:

• some organizations do not provide information under all headings (and therefore cannot be included in all three tables)
• it is difficult to compare a mass membership organization with a select membership organization
• some organizations describe their membership in terms of countries and territories (which makes comparison difficult)

A crude effort was made to get around the above difficulties by totalling the rankings of an NGO in each list, using means where rankings were absent. The first few NGOs in the resultant list are given in Table 5. Clearly, absence of information unfavourable to an NGO pushes it further up the list. This is not satisfactory.

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