Nonprofit organizations as interpretive communities: responses to policy reforms and the shaping of civil society in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

While they are often lumped together as one sector, nonprofit organizations represent diverse activities and objectives in the policy process. It is surprising that given this diversity, there are limited studies about the “multiple realities” that exist within a “nonprofit sector”. This article examines the multiple realities found among nonprofit organizations. It explores how government creates regulatory policy targeting nonprofit organizations and how nonprofit organizations interpret and respond using the case of Ecuador in South America. The article asks: What do regulatory policies do and what target populations do they create? How do different nonprofit organizations interpret these policies? Given the answers to these questions, what are the political and social consequences for the development of civil society? Through an interpretive framework, the article contributes to the literature about how government creates target populations through policy, how policies act upon different nonprofits in different ways and how they interpret and respond to policy. The research considers what this might mean for organized civil society and development in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpretive communities
• nonprofit organizations
• policy design
• policy feedback
• Ecuador

Disclosure statement

The author declares that they have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 For an example of studies examining at organizational responses to regulatory policy, see Vickers et al. (2005) and Arrowsmith et al.’s (2003) research on varied responses of business to regulation.

2 These regulatory reforms complemented strong rhetoric by government which also targeted nonprofit organizations (for more details on government rhetoric in Ecuador, see Appe 2016).

3 In 2017, after the research period, Lenin Moreno, once Correa’s Vice President became Ecuador’s president. The new President has spearheaded new conversations with organized civil society and repealed Decrees No. 16 and 739. These two Decrees were replaced by Decree 193 which contained similar provisions with the previous Decrees. However, it does now eliminate causes of dissolution that were left at the discretion of ministerial officials and removed the provisions about disturbing the security and peace. In addition, after four years of closure, the Ministry of the Environment under President Moreno restored the legal status of Pachamama on 17 November 2017 (Presidencia de la República del Ecuador 2017).