Government-NGO Cooperation: A Study Based on the Framework of Cognitive Constructivism

The government-NGO cooperation, according to Cognitive Constructivism, is established in the course of their cognitive development and interaction. Logically, the government-NGO relationship usually displays development spiral from rivalry to unity and from ill structure to optimal one. In reality, however, there are various possible relationships including rivalry, competition, independence, dependence and cooperation. Because of factors such as the multiplied social demands in modem society, the tendency of "government failure" in public administration, and the "external constraints" and "external dependencies" in organizational resources, government and NGOs are expected to change their original ideas so as to pursue mutual development. From the point of Cognitive Constructivism, cooperation is a process of two-way construction between subjects and it is restricted or stimulated by the cognitive structure as well as the external environment; Cooperation is a process of cultural agreement by extension of shared knowledge which is similar to "fusion of horizons" and it indicates that real cooperation can only be formed on the basis of free and equal dialogues, communications, debates, consultations and sharing of the two parties; Cooperation is a process of decentralization which depends on the relative equilibration between the two functions of "assimilation" and "accommodation", and therefore it is a process of development spiral but not straight ascending. Based on this framework, the cooperation between Chinese government and the NGOs can be divided into three models including "asymmetric dependence", "symbolic and instrumental coalition" and "strategic and collaborative partnership". In essence, the model of "strategic and collaborative partnership" is the advocating for participation of local citizens and deliberative democracy in public governance. Though the Chinese government-NGO cooperation is in the primary stage, their strategic and collaborative partnership will be well established in the cognitive development spiral if they can stick to two-way construction under the guidance of public interests. In a word, dialogues and communications themselves are not utopia, but utopia is born. out of free and equal dialogues and communications.