Governance and civil society

As part of the ECPA's regular contribution to the Journal, Tom Spencer reviews the new fashionability of governance and examines its confused interface with civil society. He invites participation in the ECPA civil society project, reviews some recent relevant literature and appeals for a coherent current bibliography in this politically urgent field. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Concepts and conceptions of civil society

Abstract

This article takes issue with three rival approaches to conceptualizing the idea of civil society in the contemporary discussion, arguing that none of these succeeds as a general account of the concept. It argues instead that there is no general concept picked out by the expression ‘civil society’: uses of ‘civil society’ are theory-laden such that they can only be understood from within the theoretical, practical, and historical contexts in which they originated. This article concludes by arguing that the idea of civil society still retains critical value, provided that the theorist locates it in a particular context.     

Economy,state and civil society

The paper identifies a double crisis of agency facing socialists-the inability of the state to act effectively as the agent of society as a whole, and of the party adequately to represent the diversity of people's interests. It argues that this crisis can be resolved by the development of civil society, enabling the exercise of social control over the state and the economy.

An institutional framework for participatory economic democracy is then outlined, based on the author's model of 'negotiated co-ordination'. The model incorporates market exchange, since enterprises use their existing capacity to meet market demand, but not market forces, since interdependent investment decisions are not taken separately by enterprises acting independently, but collectively through negotiation involving all those with an interest in their combined outcome.

The model is constructed on this basic principle of self-government-that decisions should be taken by those affected by them. The conclusion reached is that the dual crisis of agency can be resolved by the development of civil society, but that a role remains for the state, in resolving residual conflicts of interest when negotiation fails to produce agreement, and for political parties, in promoting alternative perspectives on the distribution of resources, rights and responsibilities.     

Nature,culture, and civil society

Abstract

Civil societies are related in complex ways with the nature that surrounds them. Drawing upon ecological principles, social, economic, and political theories, and empirical evidence from environmental psychology, we explore the ongoing dialectic between nature and culture—how humans alter nature and nature alters humans, their cultures and associations—with particular reference to civil society. In our view, civil society scholars overlook much by not paying close attention to nature. Nature provides opportunities for citizens to work together to improve their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Joint action can improve the physical and psychological health of people while also restoring and protecting natural systems. Indeed, a vibrant civil society is essential to achieve the many nature-related goals that require co-ordinated action at landscape scales. At the same time, nature provides appealing opportunities to strengthen the types of social values and institutions that are vital to all versions of civil society. We consider the various forms of civil society that are needed to promote healthy, appealing environments, using specific examples of community-based civic engagement. We particularly endorse citizen-run associations (i) that embrace nature-respecting normative values; (ii) that work with land and undertake political action; and (iii) that encourage participants to become more alert, engaged members of their natural homes.     

The weakness of postcommunist civil society reassessed

During the last two decades, scholars from a variety of disciplines have argued that civil society is structurally deficient in postcommunist countries. Yet why have the seemingly strong, active and mobilised civic movements of the transition period become so weak after democracy was established? And why have there been diverging political trajectories across the postcommunist space if civil society structures were universally weak? This article uses a new, broader range of data to show that civil societies in Central and Eastern European countries are not as feeble as commonly assumed. Many postcommunist countries possess vigorous public spheres and active civil society organisations strongly connected to transnational civic networks able to shape domestic policies. In a series of time‐series cross‐section models, the article shows that broader measures of civic and social institutions are able to predict the diverging transition paths among postcommunist regimes, and in particular the growing gap between democratic East Central Europe and the increasingly authoritarian post‐Soviet space.     

Eleven theses on markets and civil society1

Abstract

Civic engagement, through voluntary associational membership, is touted as the keystone of community. It is within these groups where people get a chance to come together to form the necessary social network connections needed to accomplish collective endeavors. Civic engagement can have a bridging effect, bringing disparate people and communities together. Civic engagement can also have a bonding effect on members, which builds strong in-group ties, putting the membership at odds with outsiders. This article examines the relationship between voluntary associations and social network diversity. Since civic engagement is considered a resource, vis-à-vis social capital (where more is always better), the relationship between social network diversity and multiple group membership is isolated. The type of group is also taken into consideration, because the nature of some organizations, e.g., religious and neighborhood associations, can prove an impediment to diversity. Using the national sample of the ‘Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, 2000,’ I find that membership in voluntary civic organizations has a positive relationship with social network diversity in the United States. Multiple group membership, as well as participation in neighbourhood associations and arts and book clubs, shared a positive relationship with social network diversity.     

Women,civil society and politics in Pakistan

This article makes the argument that when women have organized themselves into groups with a political purpose, we have witnessed significant advancement in the construction of a civil society in Pakistan. It traces the role women's groups have played as intermediary groups, particularly as they play increasingly important political and social roles in countering the actions and inactions of the state. Importantly, it is in the ongoing effort to develop a National Plan of Action in Pakistan in response to the Beijing Platform for Action that women's groups are contributing in a significant way to a participatory, sensitized and increasingly decentralized national planning process which is encouraging regional and NGO inputs in unprecedented ways.     

Asylum,welfare and civil society: a case study in civil repair

This paper examines a civil society challenge to UK government legislation withdrawing welfare support from asylum seekers who do not claim on entry to the country. Drawing on the work of Habermas and Alexander, it considers the role of the courts as a deliberative space and elaborates the scope for civil repair in the case of a group rendered marginal by the law. In so doing, it also suggests how links could be made with the broadened conception of citizenship proposed by Isin and Turner.     

Governance and transnational civil society: the problem of transnational rent-seeking

The expansion of transnational civil society challenges the regulatory reach of nation-states, both individually and collectively. One regulatory challenge is that transnational civil society organizations (TCSOs) can avail of opportunities to engage in, or facilitate, transnational rent-seeking in ways which benefit a small group of organizations or individuals but which impose significant social costs. This article suggests that certain roles played by TCSOs lend themselves to rent-seeking behaviour and it explores the hypothesis that TCSOs can engage in, or facilitate, transnational rent-seeking where they constitute transnational special interests and/or private transnational authorities. To this end, the article outlines a brief theoretical framework and applies it to case studies of two TCSOs, representing transnational trade associations and industry lobbies, and sports associations and regulators. While the conclusions here are tentative, the article argues for further research including refinement of the theoretical framework and empirical testing.     

The role of civil society in European integration

This paper explores the concept of ‘civic society’ in Western political thought, charting the changing understanding of this concept through history and its manifestation in contemporary political and social life. The paper draws out the inferences for our understanding of the role of government, particularly with the European Union and its relationship with citizens and other representative community‐based and non‐governmental organisations. The paper argues that the fundamental values that are central to civic society underpin the proposed EU Charter on Fundamental Rights and maintains that effective European integration requires responsible participation by Europe's citizens. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Civil society and its outside: Analysing the boundary between civil and uncivil society in the Danish anti-radicalization discourse

The literature on the boundary between civil and uncivil society has reached an impasse between approaches that oppose these societies to each other and those that dismiss the boundary altogether. This article suggests an analytical shift to a governmental approach that asks how the relation between civil and uncivil society figures in social practices. The approach is applied to the case of the Danish anti-radicalization discourse which revolves around subjects that cross the boundary. Through a discourse analysis of governmental papers, the author argues that the boundary appears twice. First, as a categorical difference that is simultaneously erected and annulled. This is not a paradox that must be superseded but one which structures a rationality of the governed in Civil Society that a governmental rationality pegs itself to inside an indefinite time. Second, this rationality is only possible through the rejection of violence. This creates a void which serves as an object of the discourse while existing outside the indefinite time of governmentality.     

From nomadic communitarianism to civil socialism: Searching for the roots of civil society in rural Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

This article explores the environmental, historical and cultural factors that influence civic engagement among rural communities in contemporary Kazakhstan. It traces how forms of nomadic communitarianism as a response to the vicissitudes of life on the open Steppe merged with the imposed collectivism of Soviet society in such a manner that the two were able to coexist together in both policy and practice. Drawing on fieldwork among a number of villages in South Kazakhstan, we argue that, together, the nomadic and Soviet pasts still constitute the core values at work in rural communities, influencing the structure of local power relations and the nature of group association and cooperative venture. Rather than disappearing, these values, if anything, are re-emerging as part of an attempt to legitimise Kazakh culture as the core identity of the modern nation state.     

Transgressiveness,civil society and Internet control in Southeast Asia

This paper assesses the potential of ASEAN Plus Three (APT) to catalyze a process of economic and political integration in East Asia. The analysis first illustrates APT participants’ projected views of APT’s opportunities and limitations and then assesses the motives and objectives driving APT cooperation. Following a review of the major achievements of APT, the study gives an outlook on APT’s relevance and prospects. The findings of the article are that most APT states do not advocate ideas of distinctive pan-East Asian regionalism, but rather take an Asia-Pacific perspective. Only Malaysia and China appear to be promoting more exclusive forms of East Asian regionalism. Within APT, China is aggressively pushing a strong China–ASEAN axis, whereas Japan is seeking to balance China’s efforts and step up its political and economic cooperative profile in the region. A look at the achievements of APT does not suggest a rapid spread of pan-East Asian regionalism. On the contrary, the proposed ASEAN–China FTA proposal has triggered fierce competition between Japan and China and thus divided APT even further. Moreover, it is not at all certain whether the ASEAN–China FTA plan is going to work out in the end, due to objections from various ASEAN members, including a somewhat capricious Malaysia. Whereas pan-East Asian integration efforts are unlikely, the APT process is attractive enough to keep Japan and China, who are competing for influence in Southeast Asia, committed to the APT process. Regardless of APT’s internal fragmentation, its dynamic has already begun to change the political and economic landscape of East Asia. Thus, ASEAN has been able to enhance its leverage vis-à-vis Japan and China, profiting from their strategic opposition. Japan’s reluctance to discuss trade liberalization with ASEAN members already appears to be crumbling, as it is struggling to preclude Chinese domination.     

The role of civil society in peacebuilding in southern Thailand

The ‘Southern Fire’ is an ethno‐religious conflict in the southernmost region of Thailand that has claimed thousands of lives since a violent upsurge in 2004. According to a framework for conflict resolution, the state's policy alone could not resolve the conflict as it focused mainly on implementing a ‘peacekeeping’ strategy by increasing the number of security forces. Pursuing a ‘peacemaking’ strategy via peace talks by the government did not create any concrete outcome either. Therefore, to create lasting peace, civil society actors need to be involved in a ‘peacebuilding’ strategy in order to keep the balance of socioeconomic structures. A number of civil society groups have played significant roles that could reduce the tensions in this region. Based on the in‐depth interview data and documentary research, this article identifies the eight roles of civil society and its potential to grow in the deep south. This article helps to promote civil society as a tool of a non‐violent approach that could help create a sustained peace in these provinces. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Studying civil society across the world: Exploring the Thorny issues of conceptualization and measurement

Abstract

The debate about the usefulness of the civil society concept for social analysis has reached a critical stage and calls for its abandonment are mounting. To prove its relevance for policy, practice and research, better operational concepts and more rigorous empirical research on civil society are required. This article examines the possibilities and pitfalls of cross-national civil society research as a crucial area of empirical civil society studies. It explores the definition, conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of civil society through a critical examination of existing international efforts at comparative civil society analysis. A functional approach to defining civil society and a two-dimensional operational concept of civil society, according to its (1) structural and (2) cultural features, are proposed as suitable tools to study the phenomenon cross-nationally. The article also reviews the Civicus Civil Society Index as an innovative tool to assess the state of civil society and discusses the insights and challenges emerging from its current application in more than 50 countries. The paper concludes that international comparative civil society studies are both possible and necessary, but cautions that more attention needs to be paid to the development of appropriate operational concepts and measurement models.     

浅析菲律宾民主化进程中的公民社会运动

菲律宾自独立以后就享有"东方小美国"之称,但是其政治发展却经历了民主化兴起—失败、威权统治和民主化回归三个阶段。着重阐述每一阶段公民社会运动在菲律宾民主化进程中的表现,分析其作用,并总结其经验教训与不足,这对于菲律宾以及很多发展中国家在推行本国的民主化制度时有重要的借鉴意义。     

试论公民社会构建对公共权力的制约

公民社会亦称市民社会,是崇尚公民权利,注重公民参与的社会,公共权力是公民保障自身生存发展维护自身权益基础上的有条件让渡形成的,然而公共权力在实际运行过程中却不断异化。学界对公共权力制约进行了有益深入地探讨,提出了诸如加强公权实际运作者的人品道德,强调权力运行过程中的有效监督,对权力运行结果的严格考核等方式,以达到对公共权力的规范。然而最根本有效的制约方式在于权利对权力的制约,公民社会特有的社会特质为此提供了有效条件。