Setting out to explore critically the way civil society has entered development thinking, policy and practice as a paradigmatic concept of the 21st century, Howell (development studies, U. of Sussex) and Pearce (Latin American politics, U. of Bradford) trace the historical path leading to the encounter between the ideas of development and civil society in the late 1980s and how donors have translated these into development policy an programs. They find that there are competing normative visions, which have deep roots in Western European political thought, about the role of civil society in relation to the state and market both among donors and within the societies where donors are operating. This leads to donors playing a major role in shaping the character of service provision. They also argue that their study exposes the hitherto unexplored power of the market, as opposed to solely the state, to distort donor programs. c. Book News Inc.
This book examines the role of faith-based organizations in managing international aid, providing services, defending human rights and protecting democracy. It argues that greater engagement with faith communities and organizations is needed, and questions traditional secularism that has underpinned development policy and practice in the North.
How historically rooted power dynamics have shaped the evolution of civil society globally. The civil society sector—made up of millions of nonprofit organizations, associations, charitable institutions, and the volunteers and resources they mobilize—has long been the invisible subcontinent on the landscape of contemporary society. For the past twenty years, however, scholars under the umbrella of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project have worked with statisticians to assemble the first comprehensive, empirical picture of the size, structure, financing, and role of this increasingly important part of modern life. What accounts for the enormous cross-national variations in the size and contours of the civil society sector around the world? Drawing on the project’s data, Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Megan A. Haddock, and their colleagues raise serious questions about the ability of the field’s currently dominant preference and sentiment theories to account for these variations in civil society development. Instead, using statistical and comparative historical materials, the authors posit a novel social origins theory that roots the variations in civil society strength and composition in the relative power of different social groupings and institutions during the transition to modernity. Drawing on the work of Barrington Moore, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and others, Explaining Civil Society Development provides insight into the nonprofit sector’s ability to thrive and perform its distinctive roles. Combining solid data and analytical clarity, this pioneering volume offers a critically needed lens for viewing the evolution of civil society and the nonprofit sector throughout the world.
Interest in the concept of civil society has undergone a remarkable renaissance in the 1990s. It is currrently seen as a potential tool to overcome some of the main theoretical and political stalemates. But what exactly does the concept of civil societ
The rise of neo-liberalism and the so-called Washington Consensus have generated a powerful international ideology concerning what constitutes good governance, democratization, and the proper roles of the State and civil society in advancing development. As public spending has declined, the nongovernment sector has benefited very significantly from taking on a service-delivery role. At the same time, NGOs, as representatives of civil society, are a convenient channel through which official agencies can promote political pluralism. But can NGOs simultaneously facilitate governments’ withdrawal from providing basic services for all and also claim to represent and speak for the poor and the disenfranchised? The chapters describe some of the tensions inherent in the roles being played by NGOs, and asks whether these organizations truly stand for anything fundamentally different from the agencies on whose largesse they increasingly depend.
This book investigates the impact of Western democracy assistance programs on the development of Russian women's and soldiers' rights NGOs in Russia. It argues that the normative content of assistance programs as well as the character of regional political environments fundamentally shape the influence of such programs.
In recent years civil society has been seen as a key route for democracy promotion and solving development ‘problems’ in low-income countries. However, the very concept of civil society is deeply rooted in European traditions and values. In pursuing civil society reform in non-Western countries, many scholars along with well-meaning international agencies and donor organisations fail to account for non-Western values and historical experiences. Civil Society in the Global South seeks to redress this balance by offering diverse accounts of civil society from the global South, authored by scholars and researchers who are reflecting on their observations of civil society in their own countries. The countries studied in the volume range from across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East to give a rich account of how countries from the global south conceptualise and construct civil society. The book demonstrates how local conditions are often unsuited to the ideal type of civil society as delineated in Western values, for instance in cases where numerous political, racial and ethnic sub-groups are ‘fighting’ for autonomy. By disentangling local contexts of countries from across the global South, this book demonstrates that it is important to view civil society through the lens of local conditions, rather than viewing it as something that needs to be ‘discovered’ or ‘manufactured’ in non-Western societies. Civil Society in the Global South will be particularly useful to high-level students and scholars within development studies, sociology, anthropology, social policy, politics, international relations and human geography.
Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society explores the growing power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by analyzing a microcosm of contemporary global state-society relations at UN World Conferences. The intense interactions between states and NGOs at conferences on the environment, human rights, women's issues, and other topics confirm the emergence of a new transnational democratic sphere of activity. Employing both regional and global case studies, the book charts noticeable growth in the ability of NGOs to build networks among themselves and effect change within UN processes. Using a multidimensional understanding of state sovereignty, the authors find that states use sovereignty to shelter not only material interests but also cultural identity in the face of external pressure. This book is unique in its analysis of NGO activities at the international level as well as the complexity of nation-states' responses to their new companions in global governance.
Noted NGO figures from around the world contributed to this volume about how NGOs contribute to the development of society. Included is a proposed code of ethics for NGOs. "Fear and Want. These two words summarize the sufferings of humankind across history. Endeavoring to free people from fear and want is both the most noble and the most difficult challenge that we face. To promote human security is an ambitious goal, but it is commensurate with the needs and aspirations of the twenty-first century." —François Fouinat, Executive Director, UN Commission on Human Security "An NGO should not enter into collaboration with a for-profit corporation if the main motivation of the corporation is to gain a market advantage over competitors."—WANGO Code of Ethics and Conduct for NGOs "The corporate community must accept that business is not merely charged to manage risk, or make sound investment decisions and attempt to cope with economic uncertainties. Those are the easier tasks. The corporate community needs to reflect on what it can do to bring about changes that will create a new ethical, and level playing field on which business can function place fairly and transparently, without corruption."—Tunku Abdul Aziz, Vice Chairman, Transparency International "In 1991 less than 10% of our projects had any input from NGOs. By the end of the 1990s, over half of Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects included NGO input."—Robert Dobias, Head, NGO Center, Asian Development Bank "NGOs that challenge existing political arrangements and challenge those government policies, which pose a threat to human security, can face serious repercussions from the implicated governments that are unwilling to hear public criticism of their actions. Some governments have sought to restrict the power of NGOs by creating legislation, which limits their sanctioned activity to the non-political arena."—Sarah Mich'l, Harvard University Global Equity Initiative This book is an introduction to the political economy of NGOs. Today NGOs are recognized as vital partners for government and industry. They address social and environmental problems with greater efficiency and cost effectiveness than government agencies. Multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank increasingly rely on NGOs to assist in the oversight of the projects and programs that they support. This text reviews the historical evolution that has led to the mainstreaming of NGOs and, in some cases, to corruption, graft, and deviation from their founding principles. It also describes the challenges that NGOs face in less developed countries. While NGOs are applauded byinternational organizations and by the governments of developed countries, they still are viewed as a political threat in many developing countries where they are deliberately marginalized by legal constraints and bureaucracies that make their survival almost impossible.
The UN is able to recognize key global challenges, but beset by difficulties in trying to resolve them. In this, it represents the current global political balance, but is also the only international institution that could move it forward. Civil society can be a catalyst for this kind of change. In this book, Nora McKeon provides a comprehensive analysis of UN engagement with civil society. The book pays particular attention to food and agriculture, which now lie at the heart of global governance issues. McKeon shows that politically meaningful space for civil society can be introduced into UN policy dialogue. The United Nations and Civil Society also makes the case that it is only by engaging with organizations which legitimately speak for the 'poor' targeted by the Millennium Development Goals that the UN can promote equitable, sustainable development and build global democracy from the ground up. This book has strong ramifications for global governance, civil society and the contemporary debate over the future of food.
