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Civil Society Lecture:Interest Groups, Pressure

Groups, Social Movements,

Pluralism & Polyarchy,

Corporatism, Civil Society

Definitions, Implications, Problems

and Questions


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Pressure Groups

Grew from the idea that democracy not so

much a matter of parliament, MPs or

Congressmen, but about managing

demands of competing groups

Permanent or ad hoc?

Insider or outsider?

Campaigners or defenders?

Single-issue or multi-issue?


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Interest groups

More permanent connotations: idea thatthere are lots of permanent groups thathave to defend their interests

Finer produced 10 categories: things likechurches, chambers of commerce, tradeunions

Distinguished from parties because didntrun for office or try to become government

Distinction more blurred now


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Social Movements

SMs are defined as a set of opinions and beliefs in apopulation which represents preferences for changingsome elements of the social structure and/or rewarddistribution of society (McCarthy and Zald, 1977)

SMs are broadly conceived: They differ from interestgroups and pressure groups which are specificorganisational phenomena

Interest groups and pressure groups can become part ofa SM (eg trade unions in the broader labour movement),as can political parties (eg the Labour Party in the Ban

the Bomb movement and CND in the 1980s) When referring to organisations within a SM they are

described as social movement organisations (SMOs).


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Pluralism or Polyarchy

Two of those 1960s political science terms

Simply mean that there are lots of centres

of power in a particular political system

Supposed to be the case that all

democracies are liberal and this is one of

the things that distinguishes them from

totalitarian regimes


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Problematic term

Has authoritarian & pluralist connotations:

A system of interest representation in which the constituent units areorganised into a limited number of singular, compulsory, non-competitive,hierarchically ordered and functionally differentiated categories, recognisedor licensed (if not created) by the state and granted a deliberaterepresentational monopoly within their respective categories in exchange forobserving certain controls in their selection of leaders and articulation ofdemands and supports.

(Schmitter in Rike & Strich (eds.), 1974: 93-94).

Mexico up to 2000 is a perfect example ofcorporatist state

Corporatism


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Classic Definitions

Revised Ideas

Current Uses of the term I

Current Uses II

Current Uses III

Current Uses IV

Problems with the term

Obstacles to Civil Society

Civil Society and Democratisation I: Latin America

Civil Society and Democratisation II: the Middle East

Conclusions


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CS is an arena of activity for the protection

of individual property rights from the state

(Two Treatises of Government) statist

conception without state, CS carries nomeaning

Hegel: 1- CS entails the protection of

individual rights & the needs of the rich inorder to secure freedom in eco/soc/cul

arenas; 2- CS describes eco/soc/cul

activity outside state control or coercion

Classic Definitions: John Locke &

Georg Willhelm Friedrich Hegel


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Classic Definitions: Karl Marx

&Thomas De Tocqueville

Marx: Bourgeois Civil Society: an economic definitionof CS

CS is independent of government, separates the

economic sphere from the personal and the politicalspheres, and has the bourgeoisie as its engine

De Tocqueville: CS Vs State

The need to defend CS from states tendency to smotherindividual and social freedoms

CS as the private sphere, independent of governmentintervention


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Reinterpretations of Civil Society:

Antonio Gramsci

Gramscis critique of Lenins universality

Differences between West and EastEurope required different tactics from

Western revolutionaries Existence of strong (bourgeois) civil

society in West meant revolutionaries

couldnt just seize the state. Need for intellectuals to win over

institutions of civil society


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Current Uses of the term I: E. Shils

and M. Walzer

E. Shils: CS is beyond the boundaries of thefamily and clan and beyond the locality[lying]

short of the state (1992).

M. Walzer: CS is the space of uncoercedhuman association & also the set of relational

networks - formed for the sake of family, faith,

interests & ideologythat fill this space (1995)

For both, CS incorporates trade unions, SMs,

cooperatives, neighbourhoods, societies etc.,

which promote particular interests


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Current Uses of the term II

* Challenging Authoritarian Regimes:

- Counterweight to state power (return to de

Tocqueville)

- Independent sphere of free expression

and association (Hegel)

- Place from which to develop new orcounterhegemonic political projects

(Gramsci)


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Current Uses of the term III

* Contribution to democracy

- CS as sphere of civility: a normativeinterpretation (Gramsci: role of

intellectuals)- CS as sphere of pluralism & participation:

an institutional interpretation (Gramsci:

structures of civil society)- CS as a check on state power (Locke,

Hegel, de Tocqueville)


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Current Uses of the term IV

* Becoming an International Actor

- NGOs and INGOsNGO-isation of

World Society (Meyer, 1997)

- World Economic Forum, WTO (?)

- Transnational Advocacy Networks

- International Social Movements: Seattle,Genoa, World Social Forum, Anti-

globalisation


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Problems With the Term

Fuzzy: Where are the boundaries?

Are multinationals part of an

internationalising civil society? Are they

part of governance structures? Should we

reserve civil society for progressive pro-

bono actors?

Idea of CS is rooted in western philosophy

and historical developmentOrientalism?


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Obstacles to Civil Society

State restrictions on freedoms, civilliberties etc.

Social and economic inequalities

Political culture, ideological & religiousbeliefs (can civil society co-exist withideological totalitarianism? Can it exist

within a religious state governed by atheocracy?)

Backlash: Iran 1979 (?)


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Transitions to Democracy I:

Latin America

Mexico:

Corporatist state: Central Party (PRI)

CNC (peasant cadre), CTM (workers cadre),

CNOP (middle classes, bourgeoisie, civilservants)

PRI

CNC CNOP CTM

Independent

Associations,

Movements, Societies,

independent Press etc

EXCLUDED!!!


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Transitions to Democracy I:

Latin America 1968: Massacre of Students as Tlatelolco coincides with

international attention of Olympic Games

Condemnation from World Society (reverse panopticon)

1970: New President Luis Echeverria Initiates sweeping socialreforms enabling free associations, free speech, free press etc.,

granting legitimacy to civil society organisations (CSOs) previouslyOUTSIDE the corporatist structure

Growth of independent social movements and independent CSOs

Still corruption at electoral level: PRI maintains grip on power

1982: Rise of Neoliberalism & closer ties with America andmultinationals = need for further transparency and liberalisation

1988: Neoliberal drive intensifies under President Salinas

1994: NAFTA

1994: Zapatista movement dramatises PRI totalitarianism forWorld Society

2000: Eventual defeat of PRI via free elections after over 70 yearsin power


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Transitions to Democracy II: Middle East

Civil society interpreted in specifically Western(Lockean, Hegelian) terms is unlikely to emerge in

the Middle East, but this should not exclude the

development of other kinds of inclusive solidarity

communities

(M. Hudson, 1988: 168)

[In] a secular, liberal state that subscribes to theprinciples of religious toleration, historical

religions...are part of civil society

(T. Asad, 1992: 9)


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[There is] confusion in the Arab public

mind, at least about the meaning of

democracy. The confusion is, however,

understandable since the idea ofdemocracy is quite alien to the mind-set of

Islam

(E. Kedourie, 1992: 1)

Transitions to Democracy II: Middle East


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Summary

What have we looked at?

- Classic Definitions (Hegel, Locke, Tocqueville, Marx etc.)

- Revised Ideas (Neo-Marxist ideas of CS as revolutionary)

- Current Uses of the term I (Walzer, Shils)

- Current Uses II (Challenge to authoritarian regimes)

- Current Uses III (Contribution to Democracy)

- Current Uses IV (Internationalisation of CS)

- Problems with the term (Orientalist? Ambiguous?)

- Obstacles to Civil Society (Civil Liberties, Cultural Beliefs)

- Civil Society and Democratisation I: Latin America

- Civil Society and Democratisation II: the Middle East

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