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and Kazakhstan where funds have been taken, but a comprehensive program of activities is clearly
missing. Consequently, we can conclude that foreign funding alone is not a good predictor of NGO
success.
Second, in the domestic/political stability realm, we find that while domestic laws can
restrain activities of NGOs, they don’t have to automatically reduce the role of NGOs in
democratization. For example, GBM leader has faced continued harassment from the government,
yet GBM has been successful in empowering local population largely because of the leadership’s
determination and public interest in the organization. This is then tied to the aspect of the
individual leadership and the role it plays in cases where NGOs have been successful. Both
SEWA’s and GBM’s leaders have been constrained by the government, yet their opposition to the
authorities has actually mobilized larger following of people. Thus the role of domestic constraints
while still important in distracting from democratization need not stop NGOs from carrying out a
political agenda. In fact, it is this constraint that should actually mobilize NGO action as the
purpose of these actors is to fight against the very laws that contradict the existence of civil society.
Yet NGOs that have failed to bring change have succumbed to these forces. The case of
Kazakhstan illustrates that complete control by the government might deter attempts at carrying out
the organization’s agenda. It thus appears that while some level of governmental control is not
sufficient to stop NGOs, it might be at the very initial stages of democratization when authoritarian
forces are still hanging in power as evident in Kazakhstan. Yet increasing democratization beyond
that initial stage does not necessarily contribute to the success of the NGO.
Interestingly, we find that even when domestic constraints are completely relaxed, NGOs
can still fail. In Poland where we would expect women NGOs to be successful because domestic
restraints are fairly limited, the opposite effect has occurred. What is even more surprising is that
Convention