Sections:
How to work with Civil Society
How to understand civil society
Civil society varies enormously between countries and at different historical periods in any one country. The nature of the political regime and the relations between the state and civil society relations affect it. Any analysis therefore requires an understanding of all these different factors. A very good framework for understanding civil society has been outlined by Goetz and Lister.
Understanding civil society organisations
To understand civil society there is a need to understand the different organisations, groups and associations in civil society and how they relate with each other.
Capturing the sheer variety of civil society organisations and their objectives is extremely difficult. The analysis is often linked to the objectives and strategies of those doing the analysis. For example if a donor wanted to support the participation of civil society organisations in poverty reduction strategy processes, it might analyse organisations according to level of operation to ensure that urban elite groups were not the only ones involved. On the other hand, if a donor wanted to promote civil society partnerships with state institutions on service delivery, it might be more important to analyse according to capacity, size and reach.
There are many ways of classifying groups within civil society . These have grown out of efforts to understand the different interest groups within civil society. Most classifications have focused on non-governmental organisations, although many could be adapted to refer to civil society organisations more broadly.
To classify and understand the range of civil society organisations in a country, it is useful analyse the following aspects of the organisations (see How to understand civil society).
- Ownership
- Accountability
- Aims and objectives
- Legitimacy
- Sustainability
- Level of formality
- Operations
In order to build this up into a more complex view of the role and influence of civil society organisations, it is useful to analyse the environment. One needs to identify how civil society organisations interact with other organisations and to understand why organisations they interact in this way. This raises key questions (see How to understand civil society) like, is it to further their own interests, pursue particular agendas, or to enhance their effectiveness?
This analysis will include developing an understanding of the alliances and umbrella organisations that exist; the links between international, national and local organisations; between rural and urban groups and between advocacy and service-delivery organisations.
Understanding the relationship between civil society and the state
The character of the political regime has obvious implications for the mode of engagement between the state and its citizenry:
The state
In multi-party democratic regimes regular competition for political power and programmatic political parties opens up opportunities for civil society organisations to influence politicians and the agendas of competing political parties. This creates an incentive to influence the policy process. In some multi-party democracies, leaders of civil society organisations become elected to political power, demonstrating the role of civil society as a training ground for democratic leadership and values. It is important to note that even within competitive institutionalised democracies, underlying inequalities of power and access are often illustrated in the varying levels of engagement of different groups with political decision-making processes.
In authoritarian regimes the space for associational life is, to varying degrees, regulated and constricted. In this context, creating service-delivery organisations is likely to be much easier than establishing advocacy, pro-democracy or human rights groups. As authoritarian regimes are often one-party states, it is important to understand the links between the ruling party and civil society organisations as well as with mass organisations established by the ruling party. It is important in each context to analyse the autonomy, the actual role in representing the interests of poor and marginalised groups and promoting pro-poor agendas of these organisations.
Legal and regulatory framework
It is also important to understand the legal and regulatory framework governing civil society. This includes the legalisation relating to such issues as the right to associate; to form a trade union; to establish an organisation and the freedom of the press. Legal and regulatory frameworks can encourage or deter the development of civil society. For instance complicated registration procedures or financial requirements can make the process of setting up an organisation long and tedious. Certain framework can restrict specific organisations. Groups may be not permitted to organise on the basis of religious beliefs, political ideology or ethnicity. However legal and regulatory frameworks can also prevent arbitrary state intervention and guarantee for citizens and civil society the right to hold government officials to account.
Policy processes
It is important to understand the nature of policy processes within different political regimes. Donors need to know where decisions are made and how different actors can influence this process.
The relationship between civil society and political parties is complex. Political parties may provide an important link between civil society organisations and government and between informal and formal politics. But the nature of these links needs to be examined. Existing power structures affect the engagement between political parties, civil society organisations and government. There is a need to understand the common ideology that cements relationships between political parties and specific civil society organisations and how these relationships affect the ideology of civil society organisations and their legitimacy within the community. The role and interaction with the Parliament is also of interest.
There are many examples of the analysis of civil society in different countries. We already have many examples including:
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