Role Of Civil Society In The Democratization Process

This book tests many of the assumptions, hypotheses, and conclusions connected with the presumed role of civil society organizations in the democratization of African countries. Taking a comparative approach, it looks at countries that have successfully democratized, those that are stuck between progress and regression, those that have regressed into dictatorship, and those that are currently in transitional flux and evaluates what role, if any, civil society has played in each instance. The countries discussed—South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Tunisia—represent a diverse set of social and political circumstances and different levels of democratic achievement, providing a rich set of case studies. Each sample state also offers an internal comparison, as each has historically experienced different stages of democratization. Along the course of each case study, the book also considers the effect that other traditionally studied factors, such as culture, colonization, economic development and foreign aid, may have had on individual attempts at democratization. The first extensive work on civil society and democratization in Africa, the book adds new insights to the applicability of democratization theory in a non-Western context, both filling a gap in and adding to the existing universal scholarship. This book will be useful for scholars of political science, economics, sociology and African studies, as well as human rights activists and policy makers in the relevant geographical areas.

Featuring a broad range of perspectives on the democratic process, this collection of essays explores the development of civil society and how civil societies manage democratic change around the world.

The author assesses the main theories developed to account for and explain why and how authoritarian regimes give way to democratic ones. The book takes issue with the predominantly élite-centred focus of much of the literature, and illustrates how an understanding of democratization can be gained only if the role of civil society is taken into account.

With contributions from experts on democracy promotion, this volume examines civil society development and external civil society promotion in post-socialist Europe. It focuses on countries with a failed or deficient process of democratic consolidation looking at unintended consequences of external democracy promotion on civil society development.

The main purpose of this study is to uncover the extent to which Lebanese civil society can contribute to social and political changes and be an agent to the democratization process. The study also aims at presenting an appraisal of the reality of the Lebanese civil society in terms of advocating for changes and reforms according to civil society activists through the case of the "Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform "(CCER). The study contributes to the growing body of research on the role of civil society in democratization process. Interviews were conducted with organizers of CCER in Lebanon and key civil society activists as a method of collecting data. The case of the CCER was chosen a research for the purpose of extracting factors and conclusions from this specific experience and making it available to the general public. Six parameters were used to draw an appraisal of the CCER case and they are: advocacy and campaigning means, methods of awareness dissemination, methods of communication and networking , internal organization , political framework, and socio-economic factors. Results show that civil society organizations in Lebanon have limited influence over state policies and further confirm the literature that most of the civil society organizations impact is through welfare provisioning rather than public and political advocacy. For civil society to be a countervailing power against state domination and corruption, and thus be an agent toward democratization in Lebanon it needs to be better organized and acquire proficiency in networking and associating for cooperative action. It also needs to be more realistic in approaching Lebanese politics given the constraints that confessional consociational politics places on movements of civil society.

List of tables and figures.

This book adds to debates over the international dimensions of democratic change by studying the policies and actions of three sets of Western actors: namely, governments, multinational companies, and international NGOs. This actor-based triangular approach responds to observations that the strategic, economic, and social aspects of international democracy have rarely been studied in a combined, holistic fashion. During the 1990s, Western governments, multinational companies, and civil society organizations all came to engage more notably in debates over democratic trends. But were they genuine when they professed a concern with democracy in developing countries? Which of these dynamics - governmental, commercial, or social - was the most influential in propelling efforts to encourage democratization and which helped explain the limits of democracy's international reach? Did political, economic, and social actors form a broad network of international democratic momentum, or did their respective perspectives increasingly diverge? Exploring these questions, the book presents extensive empirical material relating to Western policies in a number of developing regions, covering the period from the mid-1990s to 2003. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can make a vital contribution to public health and health systems but harnessing their potential is complex in a Europe where government-CSO relations vary so profoundly. This study is intended to outline some of the challenges and assist policy-makers in furthering their understanding of the part CSOs can play in tandem and alongside government. To this end it analyses existing evidence and draws on a set of seven thematic chapters and six mini case studies. They examine experiences from Austria Bosnia-Herzegovina Belgium Cyprus Finland Germany Malta the Netherlands Poland the Russian Federation Slovenia Turkey and the European Union and make use of a single assessment framework to understand the diverse contexts in which CSOs operate. The evidence shows that CSOs are ubiquitous varied and beneficial and the topics covered in this study reflect such diversity of aims and means: anti-tobacco advocacy food banks refugee health HIV/AIDS prevention and cure and social partnership. CSOs make a substantial contribution to public health and health systems with regards to policy development service delivery and governance. This includes evidence provision advocacy mobilization consensus building provision of medical services and of services related to the social determinants of health standard setting self-regulation and fostering social partnership. However in order to engage successfully with CSOs governments do need to make use of adequate tools and create contexts conducive to collaboration. To guide policy-makers working with CSOs through such complications and help avoid some potential pitfalls the book outlines a practical framework for such collaboration. This suggests identifying key CSOs in a given area; clarifying why there should be engagement with civil society; being realistic as to what CSOs can or will achieve; and an understanding of how CSOs can be helped to deliver.

The transition paradigm has traditionally viewed civil society activism as an essential condition for the establishment of democracy. The democracy promotion strategies of Western policy-makers have, therefore, been based on strengthening civil society in authoritarian settings in order to support the development of social capital -to challenge undemocratic regimes. This book questions the validity of the link between an active associational life and democratization. It examines civil society in the Arab world in order to illustrate how authoritarian constraints structure civil society dynamics in the region in ways that hinder transition to democracy. Building on innovative theoretical work and drawing on empirical data from extensive fieldwork in the region, this study demonstrates how the activism of civil society in five different Arab countries strengthens rather than weakens authoritarian practices and rule. Through an analysis of the specific legal and political constraints on associational life, and the impact of these on relations between different civic groups, and between associations and state authorities, the book demonstrates that the claim that civil society plays a positive role in processes of democratic transformation is highly questionable. Offering a broad and alternative vision of the state of civil society in the region, this book will be an important contribution to studies on Middle Eastern politics, democratization and civil society activism.

Liberation Technology brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of liberation'' versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.