As government officials and political activists are becoming increasingly aware international nonprofit agencies have an important political dimension although not self serving these private voluntary organizations PVOs and nongovernmental organizations NGOs seek social changes of which many of their financial contributors are unaware As PVOs and NGOs receive increasing subsidies from their home governments in the United States Canada and Europe they are moving away from short term relief commitments in developing countries and toward longer term goals in health education training and small scale production Showing that European and Canadian NGOs focus more on political change as part of new development efforts than do their U S counterparts Brian Smith presents the first major comparative study of the political aspect of PVOs and NGOs Smith emphasizes the paradoxes in the private aid system both in the societies that send aid and in those that receive it Pointing out that international nonprofit agencies are in some instances openly critical of nation state interests he asks how these agencies can function in a foreign aid network intended as a support for those same interests He concludes that compromises throughout the private aid networkand some secrecymake it possible for institutions with different agendas to work together In the future however serious conflicts may develop with donors and nation states Originally published in 1990 The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print on demand technology to again make available previously out of print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905