such as the Muslim Brothers otten have to operate in a semiclandestine manner, which reduces their active membership far below the numbers of sympathizers they have among the public. Membership in human rights and other advocacy organizations is also limited for political reasons. Exceptions are Turkey and now Tunisia and Egypt. Advocates of political reform sometimes prefer to register as companies to avoid restrictive legislation governing Csos. Many Csos consist relatively small number of committed activists who are morally supported by a board of public figures. Most activists hail from the educated and middle classes, or from specific social backgrounds such as organized labor. A more recent form of Csos are the family-based philanthropic foundations that have become active in charitable work health. and education some countries, thus broadening the scope of activities carried out by the older waqfs or religious endowments (Peters and Deguilhem 2002; Ibrahim and Sherif 2008: Guazzone and p'ioppi 2009; Norton 1995/6 The capacities o most Csos in the Middle East are weak, although there are notable exceptions such as the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services in Egypt and the Lebanese Union of the Physically Handicapped. Weak capacities reflect political restrictions on Cso development, but they also stem from patrimonial patterns of organizational governance. Though part and parcel of prevailing union these patterns are in turn reinforced by political repres forms of social organization,these patterns are in turn reinforced by political repression, because CSC) staff fear manipulation and subversion by regime supporters, and therefore avoid delegating responsibilities to others. In terms of their structure organization, and governance most Csos are mere homonyms of their counter parts in the global North KhallafrTur 2008)