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ICANN is not a quango.
It is not funded by the Government: it is entirely self-funding.
Its Board Members are not appointed by the Government. Indeed, public servants are constitutionally barred (by ICANN's by-laws) from appointment as Board Members.
The government cannot appoint Board Members.
Whilst a representative of the Governmental Advisory Committee (a UN-style body comprising delegates from each of the world's governments who choose to participate and which is just one of the many Advisory Committees and Supporting Organisations within ICANN), normally the Chair for the time being, (who has never been connected to the US government --- the current incumbent being from Egypt) has no vote.
The US Government has no special powers that are any different from any other country's government, and has no veto over its policies
Accordingly, it is a shockingly bad choice to use as an example of a quango.
I removed the section on 'expected roles' because it was copied out of a report (Julie Macleavy, The Quango Debate, 2005, page 8 [1] )! Cypers ( talk) 15:39, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
I've seen the expression "bonfire of the Quangos" several places but no definition or clear first use. Any help? -- Phil Wolff ( talk) 01:00, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
Removed from article, as not sourced, and can't find it via Google:
Can anyone find a source for this assertion? The Anome
I'm not sure which of these we should use. The last is the most logical (IMO) and the first is the most commonly used (c.f. Google). What do you think, Anome? Why did you go for the middle one? Mr. Jones 18:04, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
It's ok to use the first one, the easiest one, as it is in common use everywhere.
Propose
Though some parts of this article are useful, the correct terminology of Executive Agency or Non-Departmental Public Body should be prefered. All three need to be sorted out as there is a lot of re-directing going on and a fair degree of confusion. Davidkinnen 17:46, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
The lists on this page are inaccurate and confusing, in that quite a few of them are NOT quangos or NDPBs. Guineveretoo 10:52, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
The article should be under QUANGO or QANGO, not under its present title which is one of a number of ex post rationalisations of the acronym. Historically QUANGO for Quasi-NGO came first and that should be the heading, although other uses such as that described here were more important in the end. JQ 22:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Good call -- most people wanting to look up Quango spell it this way. Also, it would be foolish to merge this with the NDPB entry, since those interested can follow the links, as did I.
The sentence on Fanny Mae has been removed, since this is a US organization, and the term is not used in that country. DGG 05:17, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
I have a request to add something on Quango as expressed in popular culture. As a non-Briton, I wouldn't be able to contribute anything to that, but I would like to know more of the cultural views of it. For example, there is a song off Blur's album The Great Escape, called "Mr. Robinson's Quango" and I dont have a clue what it means...
I've proposed that this page be merged with Non-departmental public body. I don't believe they are sufficiently different things to merit separate articles, if indeed they are different at all.
I don't know which title the resulting page should have - my impression is that "Quango" is more widely used and understood, but that "NDPB" is now the legal term for such a body. However, having worked in one, I suspect that "NDPB" may have been invented to avoid the negative connotations of "Quango"... and will therefore prove less lasting. Mswake 21:10, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
Davedawit ( talk) 09:52, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
I think we need a bold update here to restrict this article to a discussion of the history and use of an ill-defined, and rather perjorative term.
The article should then provide a proper navigation aid to the intitutions of the UK government to which it has variously and inconsistently been applied (classification from Bradley & Ewing Constitutional and Administrative Law 13th ed):
Also nagivation aid to other nations who use the term.
The list of executive agencies should be in that article and looks wrong in any case. Surely the Council on Tribunals is a NDPB. Cutler ( talk) 20:41, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
Quasi-governmental is a very brief article on a distinct but closely related topic. That article would make a good section in Quango, if it had better references. This was proposed in December, so I suggest that some just does it. -- Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) ( Talk) 00:48, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
The Federal Reserve System is not "owned" by anyone and is not a private, profit-making institution. Instead, it is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve derives its authority from the U.S. Congress
Dmhalko wrote: Quango .. is meaningless to American culture, and only the long form of quasi-governmental used. I would be against a merge that would shoot the reader off into an unfamiliar cultural background which would have no application in their everyday living.
Dmhalko continued: Personally I find the quango form to be a slang wordform which does not readily reveal its meaning to the reader.
Very good question. There are 3 forms:
2 and 3 overlap greatly in meaning, but are from different countries. 2 and 3 are arms-length boards, committees and corporations created by government for some public purpose.
1 refers to independent organizations like the Red Cross that in some circumstances appear to operate under government control.
-- Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) ( Talk) 00:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
In regards to this merge proposal in general, it is my belief that this article has the wrong name and if anything the merge should be going the other direction towards the other article, or even a new name. The purpose of an encyclopedia is to reveal and expose information in a clear and direct manner, rather than to hide and obscure meaning by using lingo or regional slang.
The word quango definitely hides meaning, because the word itself is neither an abbreviation nor a fully proper word in and of itself. It is really just a bastardized half-abbreviation created so as to make the phrase easily roll off the tongue. A proper abbreviation would be QNGO which might be pronounced Kango or Kengo rather than cwango. The 'ua' as in qUAngo means nothing, if all the letters are treated as an abbreviation.
For people who throw this word around all the time they may not be looking at how ridiculous this word is, a piece of jargon that has managed to become popular enough that being illegible and neither a phrase or abbreviation still renders it acceptable as a common word.
So, I would like to see this article renamed, since a formal encyclopedia should use this format:
Quasi-Non-Governmental Organization (Redirected from Quango.) A quasi-non-governmental organization, or Quango, is ... |
DMahalko ( talk) 18:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
in response to JQ's comment above Your statement that it is a set of privately owned corporations does not square with the statement in the federal reserve article that "it is not a private, profit-making institution." Either you are wrong or the Fed article is wrong. The confusion probably has to do with the nature of the involvement of member banks, being described as holding "stock" in a Federal Reserve Bank. However- note that this stock does not confer rights of part ownership- The "stock" may not be traded privately or publically, nor do they have the ability to directly control the applicable federal reserve bank as a result of owning the stock. It is more like owning a Bond that pays 6% interest and comes along with right to vote for governors. It is a governmental representational system that allows voting rights to a narrow group of bankers who are required to take a substantial financial stake in the success of the banking system. Mak ( talk) 16:07, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
"Elsewhere" is vague - where else is the term used other than the UK and Ireland? Gymnophoria ( talk) 12:14, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
In order to grasp the meaning of the term "arm's-length bodies" as a non-native speaker, an explanation of the etymology and sense would be helpful. As far as I understand, "keeping somebody at arm's length" means "avoiding too close relations", but what is this term meant to say about quangos? Is ist positive in the sense of "avoiding too much influence of politicians and government on bodies which probably work better independently"?-- Quinbus Flestrin ( talk) 15:14, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
I learnt, many years ago, that there was a difference between QUANGO and QANGO - the U standing for Unelected, whihc was ladded later. The obvious question of what quasi qualifies was never really answered "Quasi- unelected -autonomous non-governmental organisation". I can find no references but will keep looking... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:4E:EF1E:FC00:F5F8:6517:E8F5:5540 ( talk) 13:37, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
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The result of the move request was: Not Moved, clear consensus to keep as is, no votes of support. (non-admin closure) Sir Joseph (talk) 18:34, 4 August 2016 (UTC)
Quango →
Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation – Full name, meaningful and easy to understand (see also
Talk:GONGO#Requested move 28 July 2016).
Gotea Teago (
talk)
15:26, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
I just undid a revision that removed the word "autonomous" from the initialism in the lede. It is clear that the "autonomous" was backronymed in somewhere, but it is a real part of the phenomenon, as attested by searching for "quango is short for"—9/10 of the top results include the "autonomous". It's also a key part of the quango mythos—the purported lack of accountability.
It would perhaps be best to restructure the article such that it adequately describes the history of the term and where each version is emphasized, as well as how it's been used over the years. I do not have bandwidth for such an undertaking at this time, however. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ctbeiser ( talk • contribs) 05:23, 8 January 2021 (UTC)