| 释义 |
quango|ˈkwæŋgəʊ|
Also with capital initial and in form QUANGO. Pl. quangos.
[Acronym f. the initial letters of quasi non-government(al) organization: see note below.]
A semi-public administrative body outside the civil service but financed by the exchequer and having members appointed by the government. Also attrib.
The expansion given above appears in the evidence set out below from 1967. The expansion ‘quasi-autonomous national government(al) organization’ and its variants (now common) are first attested in 1976.
[1967A. Pifer in Ann. Rep. Carnegie Corp. N.Y. 3 In recent years there has appeared on the American scene a new genus of organization which represents a noteworthy experiment in the art of government... We may call it the quasi nongovernmental organization.] 1973C. Hood in New Society 16 Aug. 386/1 It was the Americans who first drew attention to the importance of what they have labelled the ‘grants economy’, the ‘contract state’ and the ‘quasi-non-government organisation’ (Quango). 1975Listener 2 Oct. 433/1 What our American cousins describe as ‘quangos’, which..are the quasi non-governmental organisations..from the University Grants Committee to the British Tourist Authority. 1976Observer 2 May 1/2 A new species of animal is multiplying in the undergrowth of Britain—the QUANGO, or Quasi Autonomous National Governmental Organisation. 1976Daily Tel. 8 Sept. 8/7 While millions of workers have their pay limits rigidly fixed, their union bosses are able to increase their incomes by becoming members of ‘quangos’. The word, newly-coined, stands for Quasi Autonomous National Governmental Organisations. 1977New Society 17 Mar. 531/1 Now sits in the House of Lords and has an array of quango jobs. 1978Economist 5 Aug. 20 A quango covers just about everything from the Price Commission to the Police Complaints Board and the British Waterways Board. 1978Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 18 Baroness Young will be declaring a personal interest when she opens a timely debate in the Lords today on the growth of Quangos, Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations. 1979Daily Tel. 8 Aug. 14 Anthony Barker of Essex University, describes the gathering as his act of atonement for having, he claims, invented the word quango..10 years ago. 1980Times 1 Feb. 15/5 It seems impossible to believe that any government, however intent upon abolishing ‘Quangos’ (Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organizations),..would kill off the Advisory Council on the Penal System. 1980T. Sharpe Ancestral Vices ix. 70 He's some sort of personal Quango... A Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organization, as you very well know.
Hence quanˈgocracy, quangos regarded collectively; the power or influence attributed to quangos; ˈquangocrat, a member of a quango regarded (usu. unfavourably) in terms of his authority.
1979Daily Tel. 17 Apr. 18/1 Mr Callaghan's quangocrats were chosen to perform socialist functions, so were most of their institutions. 1979Observer 23 Sept. 5/2 The sacked quangocrats are almost all unpaid. Ibid. 9/6 The original attack of the Conservatives conjured up bogies..of ‘union hierarchies which interlock with quangocracy’. 1980Times 12 Jan. 3/2 Those great beneficiaries of quangocracy, the trade unions and the academics of the left, are beginning to fight back. |