Hegel against Fukuyama: Associations, Markets and Recognition

Fukuyama's influential book The End of History and the Last Man presents an Hegelian picture of history as the story of the struggle for recognition. Modern liberal society is the end of history since it resolves that struggle. However, unlike Hegel, Fukuyama assumes recognition is pursued for its own sake. The assumption lends plausibility to a market model of recognition which sits uneasily with his own defence of associational spheres of existence. Hegel, in contrast, inherits an Aristotelian position according to which recognition is parasitic on other goods. This account of recognition informs Hegel's defence of an associational account of civil society and his rejection of market exchange as satisfactory site for recognition. Hegel's response to market modes of recognition is contrasted with that of Adam Smith.     

Citizens,Partners or Patrons? Corporate Power and Patronage Capitalism

Abstract

The addition of new social roles in public service and civil society to large business corporations' enormous economic power and substantial political influence suggests novel but little-understood changes in the institutional relations between business, state and civil society. Sociological emphasis on the centrality of power relations in business conduct and radical diagnoses of a corporate ‘take-over’ of public and civil society institutions is contradicted by other literature which portrays corporations as socially responsible benefactors rather than all-powerful behemoths. The present analysis assesses rival emphases on power relations and normative shifts toward corporate social responsibility in the sphere of business–civil society partnerships. It argues that, in the United States and Britain, a new set of institutional relationships is emerging to fill a vacuum in tackling social and environmental problems. In this new institutional field, large corporations are taking on the role of patrons to a variety of clients amongst public and civil society organisations. This social relationship parallels similar episodes of patronage when systems of community and public welfare disintegrated during the rise of capitalism.     

转型期中国公民社会的建构探析

改革开放以来,中国开始了由计划经济向市场经济的转型,但是转型进程中,我们发现,政治国家的力量大大超越了公民社会的力量,公民社会一直被政治国家所湮没,因此,如何构建一个成熟的公民社会就成为当代中国社会转型的轴心,并将影响着中国现代化的进程与前景。本文基于当代中国公民社会现状提出：建构一个成熟的公民社会是中国社会转型的必由之路,而在当代中国公民社会的构建进程中,市场经济的建立和完善是基础,现代公司的塑造是核心,社会组织的发展是关键,宪政民主制度的确立是保障。     

Rousseau's General Will: Freedom of a Particular Kind

Had Rousseau not been centrally concerned with freedom, some of the structural features of his political thought would be unaccountable. Above all, the notion of general will would not have become the core of his political philosophy. Rousseau's reasons for using 'general will' as his central political concept were essentially philosophical. The two terms of general will - 'will' and 'generality' - represent two main strands in his thought. 'Generality' stands for the rule of law, for civic education that draws us out of ourselves and towards the general (or common) good. 'Will' stands for Rousseau's conviction that civil association is 'the most voluntary act in the world', that 'to deprive your will of all freedom is to deprive your actions of all morality'. And if one could 'generalize' the will, so that it 'elects' only law, citizenship, and the common good, and avoids 'willful' self-love, then one would have a general will in Rousseau's particular sense. The distinctiveness of Rousseau's general will is further brought out through a comparison with Kant's 'good will' about which Rousseau would have felt severe doubts.     

Transparency in transnational governance: The determinants of information disclosure of voluntary sustainability programs

The rise of “new” transnational governance has intensified debates about a lack of accountability in global politics. Reviewing the mechanisms through which transparency can foster accountability beyond the state, this article explores the determinants of information disclosure in the field of transnational sustainability governance. Examining the institutional design of 113 voluntary sustainability programs, we find a positive correlation between the involvement of public actors and information disclosure. In contrast, the role of civil society is more ambiguous. There is no statistical support for arguments linking non‐governmental organization participation to increased transparency. At the same time, our analysis reveals a robust correlation between civil society‐led metagovernance and information disclosure. Moreover, we find that crowding has a negative effect on transparency, whereas normative peer pressures have no influence. At a broader level, the analysis reveals a lack of “deep transparency” among transnational sustainability governors. This limits the scope for transparency‐induced accountability in this policy domain.     

民间组织发展与现代社会民主政治

目前有关民间组织和公民社会的研究成果可以说是汗牛充栋,但是系统阐述民间组织与民主关系的论文较少。本文通过对民间组织的含义、特征的扼要分析,试图重点揭示民间组织以及以民间组织为核心构成的公民社会与现代社会民主政治之间的内在联系,希望能对我国民间组织的发展以及培育公民社会推动我国的民主政治建设起到一定的促进作用。     

Civil society actors in peace negotiations in Central America

Civil society actors are assumed to play an important part in post-conflict peacebuilding; therefore, the international community pushes for civil society participation already during peace negotiations. However, the actual connection between civil society’s participation in those negotiations and its role in implementation processes remains unclear. Taking the Central American peace processes of the late 1980s and early 90s as a case study, this article compares civil society participation in peace negotiations and provisions for civil society involvement for the implementation phase, with the actual role that the civil society played in the implementation processes in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. The article questions the importance of including civil society actors in the negotiation process since the level of civil society inclusion in, activism during and influence on the negotiation process in the three cases did not result in a stronger role for civil society organizations in the implementation process. The article concludes with an analysis of how these findings modify the current understanding of the role of civil society in peace processes and proposes a different focus for future research.     

The Earthquake, Civil Society, and Political Change in Turkey: Assessment and Comparison with Eastern Europe

Civil society has been widely celebrated as instrumental in democratization, but in some countries it remains poorly developed. Such was the case in Turkey, but many hoped that the 1999 earthquakes would lead to an invigoration of civil society and subsequent political liberalization. Examining this claim shows that Turkish civil society has not been able to sustain the energy it enjoyed immediately after the earthquake because of factors within civil society itself and the attitude of the state. This relative failure is then contrasted with the more positive experience of civil society in East-Central Europe. The comparisons reveal some limits to the utility of a civil society approach to democratization. I conclude by assessing the ability of other actors and factors to fashion political reform in Turkey today.     

Right,the state and the conception of the person

The contemporary world‐historical epoch involves both the universal extension of the state type of organization of society, and the development of a universal idea of the person in the discourse of human rights. The status of the person requires positive constitution, and such constitution requires an idea of the state that informs the actual working of states. The idea of the state cannot be developed unless the natural right conception of the basis of personhood is abandoned. Nor can the idea of the state be developed if it continues to be confused with the idea of the nation. Hegel offers us an idea of the state that we can continue to build. For Hegel the state denotes both the institutional reality of the state and the subjectivity that is required if the idea of the state is to be actualized. There is a dialectical relationship between the adequacy of the state‐centered institutional order for the effective support and facilitation of personhood and our subjective capacity to be and act as persons. Thus, processes by which the idea of the state is undermined are not independent of subjective experience and our willingness to be and act as persons.     

What's the Civil in Civil Society? Robert Putnam, Italy and the Republican Tradition

Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work implies a conception of civil society with claims to republican ancestry. However, in four ways, he misses the more 'political' understanding of this Enlightenment category in republican writers, including his hero, Tocqueville. Where Putnam's civic community is spontaneous and voluntaristic, republicans emphasise the creation of civil society from above by state-building and broader political associations. Where his civic spirit is local, republicans stress polity-centred citizenship identification. Where Putnam's 'social capital' is a generalised, all-purpose resource with positive effects, modern republicans such as Tocqueville stress normative ambiguities of civic space and see the associational cradles of modern trust and solidarity as more demanding. Finally, where his civil society is a harmonious, 'functioning' place, republicans often stress conflict between citizens and between citizens and the state. A reconsideration of empirical and theoretical problems in his analysis suggests that a more republican conceptualisation of civil society would have facilitated different questions and more interesting answers.     

Bureaucratic capacity and state-society relations in China

In view of the efforts of post-Mao state-rebuilding, how does bureaucratic capacity affect the pattern of state-society interaction in China, where a robust civil society is still missing? Using the case of China’s population control, we analyze the linkage between bureaucratic capacity and state-society relations. The study demonstrates remarkable resilience of the party-state and its transformative thrust in reformist China. Through a mix of mass mobilization and institutional building, the Chinese state remains puissant in extending social control over its people. Equally important, bureaucratic capacity is a major predictor of state coerciveness. Other things being equal, localities with stronger bureaucratic capacity tend to develop a less antagonist and more cooperative state-society relationship. Bureaucratic capacity can serve as remedy to despotic or authoritarian rule despite the lack of an autonomous civil society. This finding has important implications for the potential of democratization in China.     

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.     

Regionalist governance and transnational collective action in Latin America

Abstract

New forms of regionalism are now a central element in global governance. It is sometimes suggested that new regionalism represents an opportunity for transnational civil society activism. I explore this argument through a comparison of processes of collective action in two emerging frames of regionalism governance in the Americas, the FTAA/Summit of the Americas and Mercosur. I show that, while civil society activism has regionalized to some extent in relation to both hemispheric regionalism and sub-regionalism, this process is far more marked in the former. I suggest, further, that the influence of civil society actors in regionalist governance in the Americas is extremely limited. This is due to persistent institutional barriers to inclusion, the practical obstacles for many groups of scaling up to the regional/transnational level and the particular difficulties associated with accessing trade-based negotiations.     

Crowding Out Meritocracy? – Cultural Constraints in Chinese Public Human Resource Management

This paper seeks cultural explanations of the pervasive norm violations against the principle of meritocracy in Chinese public human resource management especially at local levels. It reveals that a bureaucratic culture of patrimonial individualism, including favouritism, nepotism, localism, and factionalism prevailing within Chinese officialdom as the ethos, value, psychological disposition, and behavioural orientation of civil servants, has undermined the development in China of a modern meritocracy‐based civil service system. With 14 case studies, this research demonstrates that the Chinese civil service institutions, derived from an opposite culture of hierarchical collectivism, failed to address the cultural constraints over the implementation of the meritocracy principle. The conceptual framework, as well as the case findings, points to legislative and policy reforms in China that would address the problems derived from the unique Chinese bureaucratic culture through further institutional design and capacity building.     

Assessing the Impact of Parliamentary Design: The Case of the Danish Committee on Gender Equality

This article contributes to the literature on parliamentary design in general and the pioneer literature on parliamentary bodies specialized in gender equality in particular. It does so by establishing a frame for the critical assessment of the impacts of such an institutional design. Moreover, by using interviews and data on the behavior of committee members, it demonstrates the advantages of applying a mixed method within a field that has mostly relied on participant interviews. A systematic analysis of the impact of the Danish Committee on Gender Equality shows that although this particular committee has not succeeded in adding the perspective of gender equality to legislation, it has increased parliamentary control with the government. Furthermore, it has enabled much better interaction between parliament and civil society organizations.     

‘Then we offer them a new project’—the production of projects in social work conducted by civil society in Sweden

In some areas in Europe and Sweden, it is possible to find institutional deficits, that is, areas wherein the welfare state has more or less withdrawn its institutions. In parallel with this development, greater interest has shifted towards social work already being conducted by volunteers and non-profit organizations. How this social work could take on more responsibility for the social well-being of society is a key question. By applying the theory of ‘production of projects’, this article examines 13 projects conducted by civil society organizations in Sweden and how they could relate to the civil sector becoming a complement or even an alternative to the state welfare sector. In terms of competition for funding, the projects need to be able to package their ideas well and manage relationships with the beneficiaries. The lack of long-term alternatives and the demand for innovative ideas influence the civil sector’s ability to take more responsibility for the social well-being of society and make political influence more difficult.     

从马克思的市民社会观到当代社会观——市民社会理论视域下的中国"社会建设"

西方的市民社会理论经历了三个发展阶段,首先是市民社会与野蛮社会的分离,其次是市民社会与政治国家的分离,最后是市民社会与经济社会的分离。马克思的市民社会观处于第二个阶段,他剖析了现代市民社会的产生和内在矛盾,揭示了市民社会的本质和发展方向。中国的“社会”正处于西方市民社会发展的第二阶段。而其历史背景却处于西方第二和第三阶段交错的现代性背景中。根据历史的经验与中国的现实,中国目前的社会建设首先要健全市场经济体制,推进政治体制改革;其次要加强以改善民生为主的社会建设,培育公民社会;最后要促进社会与国家的良性互动,克服市民社会的内在矛盾。     

Community Building,Civil Society and Societal Service Production in China

This article examines the Chinese scholarly discourse about promoting civil society, constructing urban and rural communities, and transferring social service provision to society. It finds that this discourse treats two separate models as if they were one. The civil society model stresses freedom to organize for advancing the aims that participants share. The community building model emphasizes community governance and empowerment. Together, these two models expect both the state and society to strengthen their presence in the same communal space. These two models have theoretical inconsistencies, but these inconsistencies disappear if civil society is understood in the very narrow terms of the ‘small government, big society' model in which the state wants to reduce its own economic burdens in social service production. It is thus likely that in China civil society either remains secondary to the state-initiated channels of social and political participation in communities, or takes place mainly on the regional or national scope in which civil society organizations no longer compete with communal ones.     

Stultifying Politics Today: The “Natural Science” Model in American Political Science—How is it Natural,Science, and a Model?

This article “follows the actors” to examine the high regard for “the natural science model” in contemporary American political science. How this model is accepted as a science remains an ongoing struggle for epistemic control. This conflict shapes ideological and institutional struggles over who dictates to whom how the “study of politics” is conducted in evolving mainstream professional networks as well as civil society at large given the organizational dynamics of the contemporary American research university. These approaches to “studying politics today” also appear to be “stultifying politics today” inasmuch as this putative methodological objectivity exerts a dulling effect on civic discourse, political vision, and active citizenship.