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By John Samuel
What is the role and relevance of civil society organisations in a changing world? Surely, in a postmodern world, where the disjuncture between words and their meaning, rhetoric and reality is a key predicament, CSOs must be judged on the basis of what they do on the ground, rather than what they say, writes John Samuel
Locating Civil Society Organisations
The term ‘Civil Society’ is contested terrain. It is one of the most commonly used and misused terms in the social and international aid sectors today. Over the last ten years it has been used to denote everything from citizens’ groups and activist formations to highly institutionalised non-governmental organisations and foundations.
It may be time now to arrive at an operational definition of the term ‘Civil Society Organisation’ or CSO. Definitions have so far been based on either the typology or location of such formations outside the conventional arenas of the State and market. I propose a definition based on ethical and political positioning and perspective.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are those informal, semiformal or formal organisational formations that protect, promote and facilitate the principles and practice of democracy, participation, pluralism, rights, equity, justice and peace among people locally, nationally or internationally. Such Civil Society Organisations play an ethical and political role within society, trying constantly to humanise an increasingly dehumanised world. They function outside the conventional spaces of State power and market forces, though they constantly negotiate, pressurise and persuade institutions of the State as well as market to be more responsible and responsive to the needs and rights of the people in general and the poor and marginalised in particular.
CSOs have gradually acquired a significant role in influencing the development agenda, public policies and international discourse on rights, justice, gender, ecology and peace. In the international and national political process, CSOs have a legitimate and crucial role to play.
What has led to this increasingly important role? The changing contours of the State, processes of governance and market forces, definitely. On the one hand, CSOs have become a legitimising mechanism for powerful global institutions and actors. On the other, CSOs are fast emerging as the rallying point for resisting and challenging unequal and unjust power relations in the private, public and political spheres. Such a paradoxical positioning of CSOs often creates a sense ofambivalence about their real politics and purpose. This ambivalence becomes particularly problematic when different sets of actors and institutions use the same set of words and phrases with entirely different meanings. For instance, words like ‘empowerment’, ‘participation’, ‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ are used by multinational corporations, BrettonWoods institutions, and of course powerful countries. Thus George Bush never tires of reminding us that the war on Iraq was to ‘free’ the Iraqi people and that the continued occupation is to establish democracy, people’s participation etc.
When Satan begins to quote the scriptures and preach salvation, salvation itself becomes questionable and often demonic. Therefore, one needs to constantly validate the role and relevance of CSOs on the basis of what they doon the ground, rather than what they say.
The disjuncture between words and their meaning, rhetoric and reality, and talking and doing is one of the key predicaments of the postmodern condition. Hence the role and relevance of CSOs needs to be seen in relation to their functions, affiliations, actions and context in which they operate. As the world and the international political order are constantly in a state of flux, we are living within more and more grey zones and less and less clearly demarcated black and white spaces. This makes the task of locating the political and social affiliations of CSOs problematic, as they seem to be partly responsible for and partly a response to and product of the greying of politics (eg the new labour of Tony Blair) and economy (MNCs are big on corporate social responsibility and ecology these days) worldwide.
The changing context
The role of CSOs needs be seen in the light of changing discourse on politics, development and governance. The emerging political arenas and development discourse are marked by the following trends:
- Deficit of democracy and erosion of rights
- Saturation of the State and crisis of governance
- Marketisation of politics and development
- Competing fundamentalisms and identity politics
- Conflicts over resources and market
The role of civil society can be understood within the context of these emerging trends. We will discuss each of these trends briefly and then try to identify the role of CSOs in relation to them.
1. Deficit of democracy and erosion of rights
Democracy is facing a crisis. The core of democracy and human rights is the notion of Freedom: Freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of association and freedom of belief. In a liberal democratic polity, freedom is the defining sign of citizenship. Citizens are supposed to define the boundaries of the State, and the State is expected to define the boundaries of the market. Now these roles seem to have been reversed. Markets increasingly determine the boundaries of the State (the WTO-led trade regime) and the State is increasingly defining the boundaries of citizens by undermining their freedom and eroding their rights. Citizens are increasingly forced to become consumers of public service and governance. A deficit of democracy results from the increasing trend of illiberal democracies which use the rhetoric of democracy, nationalism and security to take away the rights and freedom of citizens.
Political parties have become less and less legitimising agents of democracy and the State. They have become more and more the organisational apparatus to contest elections and capture State power. Most political parties have become closed spaces controlled by vested interest pressure groups and career politicians in search of power.
In this situation, a key role of CSOs is the amplification of the voice of the voiceless and the protection and promotion of the rights of citizens and the marginalised. This is a non-partisan political role to assert freedom and articulate rights so as to ensure that the core principles and values of democracy are sustained. This role requires CSOs to promote and adopt a rights-based approach to democracy and politics -- primarily asserting the dignity and freedom of people and resisting all kinds of discrimination based on gender, race, religion, caste, creed and ethnicity. The advocacy role of CSOs becomes crucial in promoting and protecting democracy and rights.
2. Saturation of State and crisis of governance
The notion of the welfare state is withering away. Almost all the countries that became independent of colonial rule after the Second World War adopted the welfare state approach. However, over a period of time, the State apparatus began to be saturated by an indifferent, inefficient and growing bureaucracy and controlled by vested interest groups and career politicians. The apparatus of the State had become too fat to be functional. The dysfunctional State sought control and legitimacy through coercive power and militarisation. Increasing militarisation and conflict to sustain State power by vested interest groups resulted in economic resources being increasingly diverted from social and economic development to the purchase of more and more arms from industrialised countries.
The powerful OECD countries not only sold arms but also provided loans to the developing world to sustain their markets. As a result, most of the countries in the developing world got into the debt trap. The debt trap, aid dependency and increasing corruption, coupled with an entrenched bureaucracy, led to the saturation of the State and a resulting crisis of governance.
The role of CSOs in the area of social development and governance needs to be seen in this context. CSOs must fill the gap and directly intervene in development and delivery of services where the State either lacks the capacity or the political will to deliver public services. CSOs must put the issue of poverty eradication on the global development and political agenda. CSOs must play a collaborative, cooperative, complementary, competing and confrontationist role in relation to the government and processes of governance.
3. Marketisation of politics and development
The State is increasingly controlled by market forces and multinational corporations. Most political parties and politicians around the world are dependent on corporate funds (either as donations or bribes) for electoral funding and sustenance of their power apparatus. This leads to a situation where political priorities and agendas are controlled by powerful corporations. In many countries, corporate leaders have captured State power through the electoral process and run the government like corporate CEOs (eg Taksin in Thailand, Berlusconi in Italy, George Bush, ex-CEO of an oil company in the USA), without any respect for the rights and voice of citizens.
The neoliberal policy regime and Washington Consensus promoted by the BrettonWoods institutions (World Bank-International Monetary Fund) and WTO actively seek to privatise public services and decrease public spending on key areas such as health and education. This makes the poor poorer and excludes them from the ambit of development.
Thus development is market-driven and citizens are merely consumers.
In order to be self-reliant, CSOs need to raise independent sources of income and not be dependent on official funds and corporate donations. Otherwise, there is a real danger that CSOs will be used as delivery boys for Development Cola, served up to the poor and marginalised for a price. If this is not to happen, CSOs must develop new fundraising strategies based on principles of solidarity, ethical philanthropy and community mobilisation. They must not run like ‘service-delivery machines’ that can be hired by anyone including the MNCs and World Bank.
The role of CSOs is thus crucial in humanising development and politics by building alliances of peoples and communities, facilitating people’s participation, listening to and learning from the poor and marginalised and acting in solidarity with the marginalised.
(This article is based on John Samuel’s recent keynote address at the meeting of African Civil Society Organisations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
InfoChange News & Features, June 2004
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