Civil Society Plan for Today

1. Civil SocietyPlan for Today • Distinguishing among civil society definitions and their pros/ cons. • Becoming familiar with roles that authors claim civil society plays in democratization. • Debating type of structure of civil society necessary to promote democracy.

2. Emblematic images of civil society in Democratization: • Prior to/ during transition: protests to push authoritarian regimes out of power. • Video of opposition protests in Belarus, March 2006 (Ukrainian TV footage) • Following transition: professionalized organizations with narrower specialization, sometimes seeing role in democracy. • Video on Maria Rikhvanova, Russian environmental activist.

3. Defining Civil Society

4. Defining Civil Society • Civil society as a collective noun: • NGOs • Political parties? (e.g. Fish def’n.) • Religious organizations? • State-funded organizations?

5. Defining Civil Society • Civil society as a space. • John Hall: Civil society a social space for human experimentation with identities. • Larry Diamond: “Realm of organized social life…”

6. Larry Diamond • Different from society in general – citizens acting collectively in public sphere. • Intermediary between private life and the state. • Publicly oriented rather than private ends.

7. Defining Civil Society • Civil society as values or norms.

8. Robert Putnam • Values of trust, tolerance, mutual cooperation. • Not necessarily political advocacy organizations. • Building “social capital.”

9. Roles of Civil Society in Democratization

10. Roles of Civil Society • More important after than during transition. • Weak civil society doesn’t mean breakdown, but hinders consolidation and deepening of democracy (Howard).

11. Roles of Civil Society (Directly for democracy) • Stimulates political participation by citizens. • Develops democratic attitudes: tolerance, moderation, compromise. • Creates alternative channels for representing interests. • Trains new political leaders. • Disseminates information to citizens. • Strengthens the state.

12. Other Roles of Civil Society (Indirect) • Improves socioeconomic development. • Creates social equity – helping the poorest.

13. Structure of Civil Society How much can/ should the state be involved in civil society?

14. Pluralist vs. Corporatist Civil Society (Schmitter)

15. Two types of corporatism • “State corporatism”: state defines and controls organizations in society. • Mainly mechanisms for state to control & restrict public participation. • State coopts, guides, dominates interest groups.

16. Two types of corporatism • “Democratic corporatism”: interests formed from societal level up & aggregated at top level to negotiate with government. • e.g. Sweden

17. Pro-Pluralist Arguments (Diamond) • Civil society’s fundamental nature is diversity; monopoly contradicts this. • Pluralism works to minimize social conflict. • Corporatist arrangements especially dangerous for new democracies.

18. Pro-Corporatist Arguments (Schmitter, Black) • Is pluralism even plausible in many countries? • Pluralist civil society can descend into factionalism with little civic trust. • State can be compromised by pluralist civil society. • Infiltration by selfish private interests. • Incoherence from acting as a “cash register.”