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Recently introduced by critical security theorists into the literature on international relations, the concept of ?human security?, as opposed to state-centric or traditional security, identifies individuals and collectivities as the objects of security and emphasizes human rights, good governance, and, more generally, quality of life issues as the central dimensions of (international) security. Although the concept of human security has received considerable attention, some of the core arguments and hypotheses put forward by critical security theorists have not been empirically tested. This paper attempts to empirically address one of the most interesting and intriguing hypotheses advanced by critical security theorists. This hypothesis identifies global civil society as the central agent of change in international security and posits that transformative human security initiatives will emerge in global civil society in the post Cold War era, transformative initiatives being initiatives that represent a fundamental change in ideas about the nature and object of international security. In two case studies of initiatives concerned with (human) security, namely, the Kimberley Process and Jubilee 2000, this paper attempts to explore the questions of whether or not global civil society has been the source of transformative security initiatives over the past 10-15 years since the end of the Cold War, and of whether or not it has been successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes recent developments and legitimating discourses in the relationship between the "civil society", especially the NGOs, on the one hand, and the EU institutions. After briefly reviewing the developing involvement of NGOs in policy areas such as environmental policy or development policy, the paper examines recent attempt by the Prodi Commission to involve civil society actors as an Commission-wide strategy of constructing "Citizen’s Europe". Further, it analyzes discourses of several NGOs to remedy "democratic deficit" by their participation in policy processes. Based on these descriptive findings, the paper contends that: (1) current policy developments and discourses contains a bias toward what I call "corporatist state-society relations" model, which leans toward deeper direct involvement of civil society actors in policy processes; (2) this model lies behind discourses of NGOs, too. This is because there exists partial congruence of interests between NGos and the Commission; i.e., the need of the Commission to restrict the number of participants for the sake of efficiency and inconvenience for the NGOs of applying strictly pluralist criteria of "representativeness" based on "number"; (3) but this model has its inherent weakness in the dilemma of governance and legitimacy, exemplified by the difficulty defining "representativeness" of the NGOs. The Commission seems to advance efficiency of consultation process by inducing civil society actors to form coordinating framework such as the Social Platform. But, this strategy put the very legitimating potential of NGOs at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines civil society alliances (coalitions and networks) in Argentina and Chile. By cooperating with one another, non-governmental organizations and other types of civil society groups can create opportunities for participation in policy agenda-setting, formulation, and advocacy in democratizing polities. The paper analyzes the relationship between alliances and civil societal involvement in policy making in two cases of reform in the area of children?s rights. The research upon which the paper is based investigates the strategies CSOs use to engage the political system in re-emergent democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the international community?s response to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper begins with an exploration of the political and epidemiological dimensions of the crisis. It then outlines the main parameters of an ?organisational template? elaborated and imposed on developing countries by the World Bank, UNAIDS and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. The template is evaluated based on an assessment of its implementation and focusing on key political issues, including the role of state leadership in organising a multisectoral response and in mobilising religious and associational sectors. The author argues that the organisational template misinterprets the experience of countries that have achieved some success in fighting the virus, and that it is overly influenced by the ?post-Washington consensus?, which brings together neoliberal prescriptions with prescriptions promoting popular participation and the defence of human rights. The AIDS crisis provides new opportunities for reviving public health sectors and creating an ethos of public service within the public sector and the medical profession, but also forces policy-makers to confront difficult trade offs between individual rights and the public good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian environmental movement presents several puzzles to scholars interested in the development of civil society in post-Soviet Russia. Although environmental issues mobilized thousands of citizens during the perestroika era and environmental conditions in Russia remain dire, environmental protest has declined. In spite of the decline in protest events, however, the number of Russian environmental organizations increased steadily during the 1990s. The overall number of environmental organizations, their geographical dispersal throughout Russia, and their increasing professionalism all seem to signify the development of a vibrant sector within civil society. The mere creation of NGOs is not a measure of civil society development, however. This paper adopts two strategies for assessing Russian environmentalists? contribution to civil society. First, informed by Western theories of civil society development, the paper asks whether Russian environmental organizations are able to act as intermediaries between state and society. Then, in an effort to pinpoint unique features of the country?s social transformation, the paper uses interview data from 84 green organizations located in five Russian regions to explore the goals and activities of environmentalists and to ask how green activists relate to state and societal actors. A close examination of the Russian environmental movement reveals that green organizations have a mixed record of effectiveness in acting as intermediaries. They have struggled to present policy alternatives and monitor the government while largely failing to mobilize the population and encountering hostility from government officials. Yet a narrow assessment of environmental organizations? relative strength or weakness along these criteria overlooks an increasingly diverse sector of green activism. In fact we see different types of organizations emerging from within the environmental movement, broadly related their leaders? professional backgrounds. Environmental leaders influence the organizations? activities, strategies, and partners, and these choices have different consequences for how civil society develops. A blanket charge of ineffectiveness also obscures the way in which the Soviet legacy continues to affect the development of the green movement, both as an enabling and constraining factor. Environmentalists ?recycle? norms, institutions and networks from the Soviet era, thereby identifying a useable past on which to base social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By anyone?s measure, soldiers? rights organizations are a healthy and strong component of contemporary Russian civil society. Soldiers? rights groups, including the famous soldiers? mothers, developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a response to brutality in the Soviet army. This paper examines how the networks and activities of soldiers? rights organizations in Russia have developed and flourished under formally democratic institutions and through acquaintance with transnational actors. It asks why the soldiers? mothers? organizations in particular are so popular and respected in Russia when other soldiers? rights groups are marginalized, and answers that the soldiers? mothers frame their goals in terms of universal norms that citizens embrace, while other soldiers? rights groups frame their demands using an unaccepted antimilitarist lens. The paper also generates hypotheses from this case about how well Western theory and experience regarding civil society in democratization applies in the Russian context. The paper is based on an interview study of soldiers? rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations that took place in five Russian cities between 1999 and 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper combines institutional and civil societal explanatory variables to account for the participation of civil society organizations in policymaking in democratizing countries. The paper examines a particular case of civil societal intervention in policy design and advocacy: the campaign for ‘freedom of information’ legislation in contemporary Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore political engagement in an increasingly difficult and troubled world by focusing on how American college students participate in the largest simulation of the United Nations organization in the United States. My purpose in writing the paper is to explore what we do in the National Model UN (NMUN) program, its impact on the lives and careers of the participants, and its long-term effects on their involvement in civil society. I will also share the results of an informed survey I recently conducted with former model UN participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional theories of civil society have claimed that victory in major wars should stimulate a rise in civic engagement following wars, while defeat should quench it. Recent research, however, reveals that civic engagement appears to rise in defeated societies as well. What are some alternative hypotheses for the evolution of civic engagement following major wars? This paper contends that as a first step towards reformulating theories on the impact of war on civil society, a fuller understanding of the broad social changes that war brings about is necessary. To this end, it reviews the large social-scientific literature on the social impact of war, focusing especially on insights from sociological, psychological, and psychiatric research. On the basis of the reviews, it argues that the process of war appears to influence the postwar evolution of civil society at least as much as outcomes. The paper concludes by identifying some promising avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need to distinguish between more refined types of social capital than the dichotomous categories of ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ that Putnam uses in his recent work. With the addition of ‘binding’ and ‘blinding’ types of social capital, it becomes possible to more effectively investigate the forms of social capital that exist in societies where both political economy and political culture are different from those in the U.S. and Western Europe. Based on research among four types of social groups in Tanzania - (a) commercial farmers, (b) village farmers, (c) informal sector entrepreneurs, and (d) women - this paper demonstrates the prevalence of the binding type - an informal and shortterm kind of investment - among both village farmers and informal sector entrepreneurs, the bonding type among women, and the bridging type among the commercial farmers. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for building civil society, and places the Tanzanian data in comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between democratization and regional integration through the lens of civil society, and to ask if the concept of civil society helps us to understand the intersection of international, transnational and domestic influences entailed in the dual process now underway in Mexico. Specifically, it explores the connection between "civil society," a concept very much in vogue in comparative politics, development policy and the world of non-governmental organizations, and "identity," itself a fashionable term employed by those practicing its politics and those analyzing them, and one which has been most closely associated with the constructivist challenge to neorealism within international relations scholarship. The analysis starts with a conceptual discussion of the overlap between ?civil society? and ?identity? during democratic transition and the resulting formulation of what might be called ?democratic identity from the inside.? Then, the paper looks at the construction of ?democratic identity from the outside? through two lenses: transnational civil society and the state’s aim of projecting a ?democratic? foreign policy. Then, the paper explores the site where the ?inside? meets the ?outside? in the intersection of democratization and regional integration, and suggest how the two identity-constructing processes may reinforce one another either positively or negatively depending upon the status of the ongoing negotiation between state and civil society regarding their relative roles in defining the form and content of the political community. The remainder of the paper applies this theoretical framework to the case of the construction of a ?North American? identity in Mexico from the inside and from the outside, highlighting the ways in which the convergence of democratization and regional integration can potentially open spaces for civil society in its renegotiation of roles and identities with a state which is, itself, in transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post transition period of the 1990s, political parties have lost some of their dominance, the state has shrunk and new forms of civic organizations have come into being. This paper uses the 1997 World Value survey to analyze how these changes have shaped the relationship between political party membership and civic organizational membership in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. While some politicians have feared the rise of civil society, this paper shows that there continues to be a strong link between civic organizational membership and party membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores alternative ways leisure can be politicized. Focusing on working-class sports in early 20th-century Europe, it argues that the different types of politicization reflect different normative visions of civil society and the state. This raises questions about the recent tendency to treat a normative neo-Tocquevillian conception of civil society and the concept of social capital as the obvious explanatory and analytic frameworks about the politics of civil society. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New parties have been joining their established counterparts in parliament for decades now. While it has been ascertained why these parties have been able to cross legislative thresholds, few studies so far have scrutinized the determinants of the newcomers' survival in a systematic way. It is this paper's ambition to remedy that. The survival chances of new political parties in advanced democracies are determined, this paper argues, by four sets of variables: origin variables (circumstances of a party's formation, where do these parties come from), party family (does the new party represent an as yet unpoliticised issue or unrepresented ideology in the party system), institutional access (does the party participate in the executive), and systemic variables pertaining to the electoral gatekeepers (how proportional is the electoral system the party competes in). Not just the occurrence of events as such is important; this paper pays particular attention to the timing of these events. To this end, event history (or survival) analysis is the method applied to study the determinants of newly elected parties' survival chances in advanced democracies. A new dataset was created for this purpose containing 150 parties in 16 countries. The results partly confirm earlier research: having roots in civil society organisations and presenting an ideologically distinct profile are beneficial to new party survival, as is participation in the executive. The electoral system variables, however, did not appear to have an effect. Adding to the literature, type of formation is shown to have a significant impact on the outcome, pointing towards the need for more attention to parties-as-organisations. The more parliamentary cycles a party stays represented, the higher its chances for survival. However, the effects of the origin variables show that new legislative party survival is not just a matter of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A somewhat unique feature of the global climate negotiations is that most governments allow representatives of civil society organizations to be part of their national delegation. It remains unclear, however, why states grant this access in the first place. While there are likely to be benefits from formally including civil society, there are also substantial costs stemming from constraints on sovereignty. In light of this tradeoff, the paper argues for a 'contagion' effect in order to explain this phenomenon. States, which are more central to the broader network of global governance, are more likely to be informed of and influenced by other states' actions and policies toward civil society. In turn, more central governments are likely to include civil society actors if their counterparts do so as well. This argument is tested with data on the participation of civil society organizations in national delegations to global climate negotiations between 1995 and 2005. To further uncover the underlying mechanisms, the paper also provides an analysis of survey data collected at the recent UNFCCC negotiations in Durban in 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the fight of transnational civic networks to influence business development strategies and counter the threats to environmental and labor rights posed by the construction and exploitation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in Transcaucasia. I start by discussing the role of civil society in the global struggle for sustainable development. I then present a brief overview of the geopolitical significance of the Transcaucasian-Caspian region in today's oil and gas markets. The case study looks at how the actions of international and domestic NGOs influenced the BTC's main shareholder and operator-company, British Petroleum (BP), as well as host countries' governments, to switch to more environmentally cognizant and socially responsive practices. I discuss internationalization of civil society networks in response to the looming environmental crisis in the region, using the BTC case as an illustration. The paper concludes by generalizing from this particular case study to the broader issue of transnational civic activism as a risk-mitigating factor in the world dominated by industry-related threats presented by globalization of the extractive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the hypothesis of a positive relationship between economic and political development that has been found in some developed countries. I argue that this relationship is debatable when talking about countries with significant levels of poverty and in which democratic institutions have not been sufficiently established. I use household level data to study the effect that land ownership and formal housing has on the enrollment in civil society groups. Also, by focusing on housing formality status, I extend to urban households the argument of the disengagement of rural individuals from the political life of their community once they become landowners. The focus of the analysis is the case of post-Sandinista Nicaragua in the midst of a long period of land and counter land reform processes and accompanying titling programs. The main result of the paper is the finding of a negative effect of formal housing on participation in civil society: households receiving formal property rights of their dwellings are less likely to join civil society groups. This relationship implies important dilemmas for democratic governments trying to solve the major economic problems of the population and it also evidences the low level of development of the democratic institutions in poor countries in the sense that once a household has satisfied its basic needs, it has incentives to disengage from civil society groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical findings from an interpretive case study of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (the Network). It focuses on their efforts to develop policy ideas grounded in the experience of their members, and to promote them throughout the "deliberative system," a series of forums and spheres where communicative practices that foster critical, public reflection take place. Findings indicate that the organization adopts a "dual strategy" where they collaborate with government agents in face-to-face deliberative forums and take independent action outside them. This dual strategy surfaces two tensions in deliberative practice that the Network learned to manage in order to get their ideas onto the public stage: 1) doing policy advocacy that requires collaboration with policy elites while staying "bottom up," and 2) developing policy ideas relevant to decision makers while maintaining the autonomy to be critical. Acknowledgements: I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of staff, affiliates, and colleagues of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice for their contribution to this research. They brought to interviews a deep knowledge of the environmental justice movement and its history in New Mexico. This research was supported by the Research and Documentation component of Leadership for a Changing World (LCW), a program sponsored by the Ford Foundation; I recognize the contributions of my colleagues at the Research Center for Leadership in Action, and our co-researchers and partners in LCW who shaped my understanding of social change work. I am grateful for the comments of anonymous reviewers and participants of the panel 'Accounting for politics in applications of deliberative democracy theory' at the Interpretative Policy Analysis Conference in 2008, where this paper was first presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops ideas for a new interpretive framework through which to analyze rhetoric in politics. It employs Michel Meyer's conception of questioning in order to conceive of the state as facing a question of legitimacy, which is partly justified through rhetoric. It also employs Meyer's definition of rhetoric as the negotiation of the distance between subjects in regard to a question, structured through the three key rhetorical concepts, ethos, pathos, and logos. This interpretive epistemology allows us to analyze the rhetorical qualities of political discourse as well as the non-discursive aspects of social action, including the state and political institutions. The paper will depict the state as itself a rhetorical entity, and describe how the methodology supports an extensive analysis of the state-society relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduced in 1999, poverty reduction strategies (PRS) are currently the World Bank and IMF's main instrument to regulate access to debt relief and concessional financing from both institutions. By replacing the former structural adjustment programs this new approach seeks to increase the participation of civil society in the design and implementation of the national development strategy. As a result, it is expected that the voices of formerly excluded social groups help to formulate more effective development strategies leading to welfare-improving outcomes. In terms of democratization, it is assumed that PRS reduce inequalities within civil society and strengthen democratic accountability of the financial aid-seeking government towards its citizens and versus other political institutions. Theoretically, this paper proposes that World Bank and IMF programs often substantially interfere with domestic politics by changing the prevailing power balance between pro-democratic and anti-democratic forces. Thus, the question arises whether the participation in different types of World Bank and IMF programs also has a different impact on the quality of democracy in recipient countries. Empirically, this paper analyzes the joint effects of World Bank and IMF programs on democratization in 80 developing countries from 1974 to 2007. Our results show that non-concessional programs have no significant effect on the quality of democracy in recipient countries, whereas concessional programs have strong positive effects on different dimensions of democracy. In relation to the new PRS approach, evidence suggests that broad-based participation of civil society in the PRS process does not automatically result in higher participation at the national level. However, a country's participation in poverty reduction programs significantly increases the degree of checks and balances on the government and the level of civil liberties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts an ecosystem approach in exploring a new global institution, the Internet Governance Forum, created as a result of the World Summit On The Information Society. It focuses on the flow of ideas and the functions of multistakeholderism related to this innovative institution. Using four knowledge transfer 'episodes', it tracks the formal flow of an idea at the level of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a whole and between the IGF and its Dynamic Coalitions, novel multistakeholder groups created as an outcome of the first IGF in Athens. Also examining who the stakeholders are and the extent to which stakeholders from governments, civil society and the private sector are formally involved as well as those from developing nations, the paper uses analysis of formal web postings and meeting transcripts to trace the origins and outcomes of the flow of a specific idea. Finally, the work highlights the need for studying the characteristics of the environment in which these knowledge flows take place with a special focus on culture, power, and uncertainty. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, civil society has become an attractive research field in political science. The main reason for this is that civil society, which consists of civic voluntary activities, is an arena of social interaction to foster civic empowerment and recognized as the basis for democracy. For feminists, however, "civil society" does not necessarily have an optimistic connotation. Feminist scholars criticize it mainly for three reasons. First, the realm of civil society is derived from the dichotomy between the public and the private. This dichotomy has confined women to the private sphere ideologically and practically. Second, because civic voluntary organizations are often exempted from state's regulations, sexual inequality and discrimination against women that occur in these organizations will be left as they are. Civil society appears to be more dangerous for women than the state because their rights and lives are left unprotected. Third, "post-welfare states" that have been prevalent since the 1980s encourage people to maintain welfare services through voluntary activities in order to supplement reduced public services with them. Women not only suffer a loss from an insufficiency of publicly provided social services, but they are also expected to engage in unpaid welfare services.Such negative effects notwithstanding, the civil society has potential for women's political empowerment. Civil society is situated between the private sphere and the political sphere, and it provides citizens with a space to be involved in voluntary activities. I identify civil society as an intermediary arena that ties women's everyday lives with politics. Although the line-up of civic voluntary organizations is diverse ranging from social movements, non-governmental and non-profit organizations to charity groups, social movements stand out as the crucial actors in terms of their nature of politicization. Specifically, women's movements channel women's consciousness and expectations into politics. In this regard, civil society plays an important role in enhancement of women's influence on politics so long as women are excluded from elite political community.The paper will focus on the relationship between women's everyday life, civil society and politics. My purpose is to elucidate how women's autonomous organizations function as active agents to change the political status quo and to reform social policies to be more women-friendly. Based on my own comparative research in Japan, Britain, and Scandinavian countries, I will demonstrate that women's organizations perform four functions. First, the organizations transform women's private concerns into public issues. Second, they gather and share the knowledge and information useful for problem-solving. Third, they give women an opportunity to get involved in political activities. Finally, they create alternative channels to infiltrate women's demands into public policies. In doing so, I will argue that women's collective activities based in civil society have contributed not only to improving their socio-political conditions but also to strengthening democracy socially and politically. Proposing an analytical framework of interaction between the private sphere, civil society and the political sphere, this paper attempts to reconcile feminists' criticism with the significance of civil society on feminist politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What role do moderate Islamic organizations play in promoting democratization in Malaysia and Indonesia? What is the difference between large, grassroots organizations and newer more urban-based NGO's? Is one type of organization more effective than the other? This paper looks at the changing dynamics of moderate or progressive Islamic organizations in Malaysia and Indonesia. Some of these groups receive funding and assistance from US sources like the Asia Foundation or USAID. Moderate, progressive, or "liberal" Islamic groups suffer from being perceived as "good" Muslims by US policy makers. Given this inadvertent association, can these organizations effectively promote democracy and human rights to the larger population when that population is so critical and angry at the United States? In other words, are Indonesians and Malaysians more likely to turn away from moderate and progressive Islamic ideas because they may seem to be linked to a US agenda of building liberalism? This paper looks at organizations such as the Liberal Islam Network in Indonesia and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia, as well as others to try and understand the conflict between moderate or progressive Islamic groups and more conservative Islamic forces and to evaluate the role such moderate organizations play in advocating for greater protection of rights and liberties. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains variation in state-NGO interactions in welfare provision and policy formation in post-Soviet authoritarian regimes? Under which conditions do NGOs or other societal groups cooperate with, compete with, or become co-opted by the state? The government of Uzbekistan has worked to retain Soviet-era welfare policies and co-opt and/or exclude civil society actors from participating in the welfare arena, whereas the regime in Kazakhstan has significantly reduced the socialist welfare state and pushed welfare into the hands of private providers, including nonprofit, nongovernmental actors. In a third variant, the Kyrgyzstan government under the initial post-Soviet regime retained a relatively high degree of state control in welfare but also allowed for the development of NGOs within the arena of welfare provision, some of which were closely connected to the presidential regime. Given post-Soviet legacies of comprehensive welfare provision and state driven provision initiatives, this paper explores the circumstances under which the state will choose to delegate to, work with, or exclude societal actors/NGOs from activity in the social welfare sphere.This project draws important lessons of post-Soviet social welfare provision, civil society development, and state-society relations in Central Asia. This project is important because it asks: "How does society work with the state under conditions of 're-authoritarianization' and what are the implications in welfare policy?" To date, social welfare scholarship largely focuses on capitalist and democratic states and does not explain authoritarian or semi-authoritarian environments. Moreover, much scholarly literature ignores the changes and the factors influencing change in post-communist welfare systems. Given the Soviet legacy of comprehensive social welfare provision, it is a policy area around which the extant historical institutionalist literature expects societal actors to mobilize and act. Moreover, the social welfare arena clearly demonstrates elements of state and NGO capacity, but, in contrast to western literature on civil society, the paper also highlights that NGOs in Central Asia do not necessarily see themselves in opposition to the local governments, nor do they want to be. Finally, in the politically sensitive context of less open Central Asian regimes (especially Uzbekistan), this topic allows for a practical and tractable way to explore state-NGO relations in regimes that are cracking down on civil society groups oriented toward democratization and human rights. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has focused attention on the diversity and complexity of civil-social life in Russia and post-communist Europe, undermining normative and 'communist-legacy' explanations of the weakness of civil society in that region, and underlining the need for theory-building that is both generalizable and sensitive to the specifics of each individual case. This paper attempts to take another step in that direction, exploring how the ways in which elites in semi-authoritarian regimes compete for power - and the social meaning of the power they are competing for - shape the development of civil society. Examining elements of civil society, the paper presents evidence from extensive field research of key variations in the relationship between civic activism and power and argues that these variations can be traced back to crucial differences in the competitive incentives political elites in each context. Specifically, the prospects for civil society appear better when elites - even closed, corrupt and authoritarian elites - are forced to engage one way or another with society at large. The paper will argue that elite-led state-society engagement, regardless of its nature, is essential to building the framework on which citizens construct notions of justice and right, while disengagement and elite autonomy significantly impede the development of civic identities. Indeed, the evidence in comparative perspective suggests that civil society may do better when it is repressed than when it is simply ignored. This, then, points to the disengaged nature of the contemporary Russian regime, rather than its authoritarianism, as a major explanatory factor in the weakness of civil society in that country. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that efforts by international donors, in particular the EU, to build the capacity of environmental NGOs across post-socialist Europe, has less to do with fostering democratic stability and civil society, and more to do with establishing new epistemic communities. Amongst critics, the technocratic, apolitical and rather benign term 'capacity-building' has become code for the transformation and undermining of 'local' knowledge, the disregard for existing 'capacities', the construction of new networks of experts, and the importation of rationalities based on west European discourses and constructions of ecological risk, sustainable development and policy responses. Not surprisingly, the weaker the post-socialist state - legacies of ethnic conflict, the severity of economic collapse - the greater the extent to which capacity-building assistance seeks to transform policy communities, actors and networks. From the perspective of Bosnia-Herzegovina it is argued that the limitations of environmental capacity building assistance are due in large part to the failure of donors to distinguish between different 'capacities', and their insistence on prioritising the development of project grant expertise and organisational management know how over and above other developmental needs. The paper illustrates the extent to which environmental movement organisations either require very basic developmental assistance, or need more bespoke support that will enable them to engage effectively in political and legal contestation with the state. However, assistance for the development of either 'capacity' is rarely available from donor agencies.The paper concludes that whilst aspects of environmental capacity building assistance are clearly having a positive impact, the rigidity of donor aid, and the framework of project grants as the mechanism for delivering assistance, are limiting the impact to a narrow elite of organisations, of which some are neither non-governmental, nor linked to indigenous local environmental networks within civil society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts by describing the explosive growth in global civil society and examining the potential for a historically novel phenomena, a Global Citizens Movement, looking at relevant lessons from past and current social movements. As it distinguishes existing social movement activity from a robust and authentic Global Citizens Movement, this paper concludes that while the emergence of a Global Citizens Movement may not be probable, it is possible given the historically unique factors pushing us into a global age. In the last section, Contours of a Global Citizens Movement, we intend to indicate some of the necessary missing ingredients for its emergence and point to future avenues for exploration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines the deployment of coercion in Brazil's cities, and how does variation in public security affect local rights? Starting with the concept of a security community, this paper analyzes policing in the city of Recife, seeking to explain is violent and contested nature. The paper argues that the latter is best explained by a combination of extremeeconomic deprivation and inequality, the nature of electoral competition, and the peculiar characteristics of coercive institutions in the city and the state. The paper concludes that the relations in Recife between police forces, other state institutions, and civil society groups appear to resemble what Rothstein calls a "social trap". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the genesis and impact of a distinctive "social investment" perspective that has taken hold in Britain over three New Labour mandates. The paper sets out to answer the following questions: from where do the ideas for "social investment" spring? Who puts these ideas into practice? What concrete changes are made and how? Who is affected by these changes and who resists them? Multiple ideas, institutions, interests and identities are examined. Ultimately, however, to understand the nature and effects of "social investment", this account focuses on actors, and state-civil society interactions in particular. The role played by interests and identities seldom considered in leading studies becomes a focal point. The paper goes beyond the usual political suspects (traditional political insiders), the typical vested interests (such as business and labour), and historically significant identities in Britain (like class) to understand the roots and ramifications of "social investment". When closer attention is paid to broader political mobilization and agency, it becomes apparent that "social investment" ideas and outcomes reflect a combination of complex, political and social processes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a political context where the national government is less and less tolerant of independent NGOs, and autonomous NGOs find themselves with fewer and fewer routes of dialogue in federal government policy processes, it has become essential for NGOs to be able to work in ways that attract Russian citizens based on their real problems and concerns. Literature on foreign assistance to NGOs has frequently argued that foreign assistance removes any incentive for NGOs to work with their constituencies in society, but instead encourages them to answer only to foreign donors. With few exceptions, NGOs remain largely unknown and unsuccessful in their efforts to build public support. This paper, based on interview-based field research spanning the years 1998-2005, weighs several types of explanations for the extraordinary weakness of Russian NGOs: (1) failures on the part of donors in their techniques and strategies; (2) enduring characteristics of Russian economic conditions and social attitudes that constrain NGOs' development; and (3) new trends under the Putin regime, which take advantage of such enduring characteristics. While foreign donors can be blamed in part for the weak NGO sector, domestic factors play a much larger role and the two spheres interact with one another to exacerbate each other's weaknesses. The paper makes several suggestions of ways in which foreign donors can improve their NGO development programs. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins with an historical and then topical treatment of environmentalism in Taiwan, focusing on changes to the strategies and objectives of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) as the Taiwan state underwent democratic consolidation after the 2000 presidential election. Then the paper considers the rise of environmental groups in China, which in 2005 remains under Leninist party- state control. The paper concludes with a comparison of Taiwan and China, surveying the significant differences between the ENGO portfolios of the two states. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the framework of comparative institutional analysis and identifies one causal mechanism for institutional change. The paper argues that, under certain conditions, the mobilization of civil society can destabilize the existing status quo and act as a trigger for institutional change. Emerging NGO coalitions in Japan have used the relay of local governments to build momentum for change and force a central government response. I present evidence drawn from two important recent cases: the shift in biotechnology (GMO) regulations and the politics of ratification and implementation of the Kyoto protocol in Japan. Such an analysis breaks new ground in the analysis of Japanese politics by bringing the study of civil society into the center of policy-making and integrating Japan within comparative models. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes an empirical examination and theoretical analysis of President Bush?s USA Freedom Corps?a citizen service initiative created after 9/11 to harness the American people?s spirit of shared sacrifice and ?promote a culture of responsibility, service, and citizenship.? This case-study is analyzed from three distinct perspectives?civic engagement, public policy, and the modern presidency?to consider larger questions that it raises about contemporary American politics. The key controversies that define these larger questions concern philosophical arguments about the obligations of citizenship and the value of citizen service; public policy-based arguments regarding the means by which social problems can be addressed most efficiently and effectively; political/ideological arguments about the nature of the relationship between government and civil society; and institutional arguments concerning the influence and capacity of the executive branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the significant changes that occur in Nietzsche?s conception of music and the Dionysian from his early to his late works correspond to the changes in his assessment of Richard Wagner. In Nietzsche?s early thought, music?s ability to transform isolated individuals into a community of fellow revelers through which human suffering is confronted and ameliorated collectively--that is, to overcome the individuation represented by the Apollinian--provides the model for what I refer to as Nietzsche?s ideal of the Dionysian public. Although Nietzsche initially thought that Wagner heralded a reawakening of the Dionysian in modern art, his experience at Wagner?s first festival in Bayreuth convinced him that Wagner was instead the very personification of decadence, nationalism, and the herd mentality. In Nietzsche?s post-Bayreuth writings, individuation is no longer the source of suffering but the only appropriate response to the leveling influence of mass society, and the notion of the order of rank replaces the transformative potential of the community. Wagnerian opera, I argue, forces Nietzsche to re-conceptualize the Dionysian and to emphasize the importance of rhythm, measure, and lightness in music. Ultimately, Dionysian music is not that which creates a public, but that which reinvigorates the individual engaged in the struggle of self-overcoming, and Nietzsche’s understanding of music thus raises important questions about the limitations of political communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian financial crisis ushered in a new era for the participation of civil society in the mechanisms of governance of the international economy. Following the crisis, the United Nations reasserted itself in the process as a ?partner? with the Bretton Woods financial institutions, and actively sought collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in an issue area where they had not previously been active. These activities culminated in the 2002 Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) and its follow-up activities. As the participation of NGOs grows in the FfD area, this paper considers which elements of civil society have coalesced around the UN and its organs, as well as which elements have not done so, by comparing the conference participants with the material providers of development finance. In this way, it seeks to broaden and deepen our understanding of how organized interests across issue-areas assert themselves in both the national, and international community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the direct engagement of civil society organizations and law enforcement in Russia in joint efforts to improve the performance and change the norms and values of state officials involved in administering justice. I describe a causal mechanism generally neglected in the burgeoning literature on national and transnational civil society, specifically how non-governmental organizations can work from the bottom up, and from the inside out, to try to strengthen the rule of law and ultimately democracy. I present three cases studies of NGO-law enforcement cooperation on rule of law reform. Although these projects suffer from some common pathologies of civil society work in Russia, they remain important, not least because of the presence of ?uncivil society? groups who also are trying to influence the norms and beliefs of state law enforcement officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Efforts during the last decade to understand the causes of the Third Wave of Democracy have continued to be dominated geographically by the experiences of southern Europe and Latin America. While I do not propose in this paper to attempt a worldwide analysis, I do intend to articulate how our thinking about democratization must change to reflect more fully the post-communist process, and to incorporate what has happened in Africa in the last fifteen years. As the scope of democratization studies has been extremely narrow geographically, so, too, has it been narrow theoretically. Although alternative approaches competed in earlier studies of the third wave, in the past decade those emphasizing the crucial importance of the actions of or agency of domestic political elites, with some attention to mass behavior, have dominated the theoretical literature. I will argue here that, in incorporating the experiences of postcommunism and Africa, it is necessary to add to this agency/process orientation, a new structuralism. I will especially emphasize the crucial prerequisite of an effective and coherent state. As I shall show, what I will call ?state theory? is, in fact, multifaceted and complex. I will move from state theory to discuss ?path analysis,? an approach that argues that the nature of the pre-democratic regime strongly affects whether a political system can become democratic, and, if so, what the character of its democratic system will be. A third theme is the recognition of the validity of some of the insights of modernization theory. I will argue that the link, strongly and consistently found, between development and democracy is a consequence of development generating a powerful civil society and giving to the actors in that civil society the resources necessary, once democracy has been introduced, to resist elite efforts to reconcentrate power. Finally, I will add a substantial focus on the role of external actors/forces, challenging the exclusively domestic orientation of the agency/process school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as the introductory chapter to the forthcoming book, State of the European Union: Law, Politics and Society (OUP, 2003). It is comprised of the following three parts. 1. EU LAW: BETWEEN POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC The first section lays out the objectives of the volume while tracing important recent events in the EU. The objectives of the volume are threefold. First, to provide an overview of key events of 2000 through 2002 in the European Union, while illuminating how these institutional (formal legal) developments are linked to an ongoing interaction between law, politics and society. We emphasize that this dynamic is not distinctive, but instead is a common trajectory characterizing the historical development of the Community. Second, the volume illuminates why the key events since 2000 are also distinct from previous trends. Increasingly, this dynamic between law, politics and society has brought to the forefront a need for more direct citizen participation in EU politics. Finally, the last main objective of this volume is to provide a unique and interdisciplinary approach to studying the European Union by bringing together both legal scholars and political scientists. Beyond achieving a more accurate science, this recent shift in EU developments necessitates such an approach. 2. LAW, POLITICS AND SOCIETY AS A PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE In the following section, we suggest how one can examine and understand these new developments in European integration. This section provides the theoretical foundations of the volume. We argue that the volume’s theme, how the intersection between law, politics and society impacts European integration, is best understood as a process of institutional change. Further, this institutional approach is particularly well suited for our goal of bridging legal and political scholarship, as our central focus - institutional change - has long been the subject of inquiry for both disciplines. 3. OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK In the remaining section, we provide an overview of the book. Part I of the volume is concerned with broad changes, both theoretical and substantive, in the area of EU politics and law. Part II provides in-depth analyses of new structures of governance and modes of decision-making in the EU. Parts III and IV explicitly engage the many processes and recent developments characterizing the interactions between law, politics and society in the EU. This includes a section on political rights and civil society, followed by empirical studies concerned with how EU law in action can constrain, empower and engage the individual. Part V compiles analyses of the salient policy innovations and expansion since 2000, from monetary to immigration policy. The final section, Part VI, is a unique contribution to the State of the EU volume series. These chapters provide both students and senior scholars alike with an invaluable discussion of cutting edge techniques, methodology and resources for research and teaching in the area of EU studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expositions of social contract theory generally assume that all individuals in the hypothetical or historical state of nature had the capacity and opportunity to be parties to the social contract. Yet both Carol Pateman and Charles Mills have challenged that assertion, claiming that either a sexual or a racial contract preceded the social contract, thereby compromising the ability of women and people of color to be parties to the contract. This paper expands upon the claims by Pateman and Mills, arguing that by exploring John Locke’s views on reason and intersubjectivity, one can gain a critical understanding of the deeper biases within the social contract tradition, revealing a set of institutions and principles that are not inclusive, but exclude many participants from within its domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how individual respond to and use policy specific information. More specifically, we test what we refer to as the resistance hypothesis: the response citizens have to information depends on their partisanship and their sophistication. Sophisticated partisans are expected to resist the persuasive influence of information counter to their political predispositions. We test for this effect using ‘meso-level’ and micro-level analyses of NES data and data from a survey experiment included in the 1998 Multi-investigator Survey. The only instance of resistance we can find in these analyses is when party and contextual cues are included to help citizens see both the policy and political implications of the information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do different communities volunteer for different types of organizations? Why do some communities have much higher rates of volunteer participation than other, similarly situated communities? The author develops a new conceptualization of civil society that classifies civic organizations continually rather than categorically. This conceptualization serves as the basis of the Community Volunteerism Model, which utilizes a state-in-society approach to explain the types and rates of volunteering found in communities. Citizen images of state and individual responsibility for caring for society determine the type of organizations (community-based or issue-based) prevalent in that community. The practices of state and social institutions (how well they legitimize, organize, and fund volunteers and their organizations) determine the rate of participation in that community. The model is tested using the cases of the United States and Japan, and the paper concludes with some implications of this model for the study of comparative civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the processes of democratic consolidation in South Africa. Much of the recent scholarship on South Africa has focused on its successful transition to democracy and the important developments which have taken place during this period of change. Yet the more difficult task of democratic consolidation continues to challenge both government elites and groups within civil society. More specifically, while there has been an increasing number of studies conducted in urban areas attempting to measure the deepening of democratic values and behaviors, there has been surprisingly few studies which focus on how this process is unfolding in the rural areas where a significant number of South Africans still reside under the authority of hereditary chiefs. I contend that we cannot fully understand the dynamics of democratic consolidation unless we examine how hereditary chieftaincy institutions "translate" those democratic values, behaviors, and institutions which have been introduced in their communities over the last ten years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is an initiative launched by the World Bank in 1999. Highly Endebted Poor Countries (HIPC) can be granted debt relief is they produce a PRSP in which they will make clear how the twin goals of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction will be realized. The condition attached by the donor community is that the PRSP must be produced in an open and participatory manner. Governments thus have to consult civil society. The assumption is that participation will lead to more political performance and accountability, to more ownership and more effectiveness regarding the poverty reduction strategy. Bolivia, generally perceived as a good pupil in implementing World Bank programs, was one of the first countries to go through the PRSP process. Donors are very enthusiastic about the Bolivian participatory process. Studying and analyzing the Bolivian process however, we have developed serious misgivings about the optimistic assertion that civil society participation will trigger off more political performance and more accountability, more ownership and increased effectiveness. The case study reveals that participation as imposed by donors, is at the same time too ambitious to be workable and too vague to be monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy assistance programs have always been notoriously difficult to measure in terms of outcome, but the need to show their impact (or lack of it) remains critical, even as the Managing for Results era of the 1990s has passed. This paper continues an effort to develop a tool for measuring civil society program impact in the form of an advocacy ladder encompassing democracy’s critical components of participation, accountability and contestation. The ladder is tested in the context of USAID-assisted initiatives in the Philippines and Indonesia, where it demonstrates a capacity both to monitor donor assistance outcomes and to suggest future program initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of civil society in the context of politics in Thailand. The data represent the Thai portion of a multi-nation project on democratization and value change in East Asia. Results of the analysis indicate that Thai civil society is weak and, at best, domesticated by elites. The data also indicate that participation in civil society leads to greater political participation. In Thailand, participation in civil society is largely by older citizens living in rural areas. It is also associated with traditional values and higher levels of trust in other citizens, as well as political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratization theories often presume that establishing a strong civil society is crucial for the successful building of a democracy. In this paper I argue that there is no positive correlation between civil society and democratization, rather, a democracy built on equality is a prerequisite for a civil society to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Putnam offers two unique gifts to political scientists and the discipline itself, which have long gone unnoticed. First, he re-centered the location of political subjects from the political sphere to everyday life and the private sphere, making the everyday world the locus of political inquiry. In so doing, he spotlighted the lives of ordinary people, not necessarily or primarily as political actors, but as human beings who have lives other than political lives. Putnam's human beings are fuller, multidimensional, and more real; they bowl, barbecue, commute to work, watch TV, have a chit-chat in the living room, surf the Internet, and participate in civil/political associations. With this fuller perception of human life, he bridged the attention gap among political scientists between the public and the private sphere and gave equal attention, if not more, to the private lives of human beings. Putnam's introduction of sociological aspects -- relationships of social beings-- into political discourses deserves equal recognition. He pays attention to an oft-neglected aspect in political science-citizens and their relationships with each other. He bravely crossed the traditional boundary of political science by his attempt to bring the everyday life of ordinary people and sociological relational aspects into the discipline. He brought real people, colorful social beings, into political science. Political scientists being what they are, social capitalists who followed Putnam in political science have naturally turned their attention to the political manifestation of social capital, or social capital primarily as a public good, for example, as a potentially necessary precondition for transition to a democratic society. In other words, their interpretation of what is political seems to be restricted to the conventional notion of "the political:"political activities or political history happening strictly in the public sphere. As a result, two of the most fundamental changes Putnam has brought to the discipline have been nearly forgotten: re-centering political subjects in the everyday world and thus expanding the scope of political studies to the private sphere, and the social sphere and paying attention to the personal relationships of social animals. The re-recentering of social animals and the lack of attention to the relational aspects of multi-dimensional beings has led to two setbacks: the lack of studies focusing on actual personal relations of people in the everyday world, and the lack of studies focusing on agents, namely, identifying the characteristics of multi-dimensional agents of social capital formation. Combined, these two omissions have resulted in missed discussions of actual personal relationships among diverse people in America that reflect today's diverse demography, and lost opportunities to identify agents of social capital formation, relations among agents, relations among different race groups (multi-racial social capital), minority social capital and the history of "other civil societies." Therefore, bringing sociological relational aspects and the everyday world to the political science arena actually introduces "difference" to discussions of social capital studies. This paper, hoping to become one of the harbingers of such endeavor, will discuss the current state of racial minorities -- "the other" -- in civil society and social capital studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last few decades of intellectual output on globalization and its correlates have produced several useful models of transnational politics and of what has been called "global civil society." But as research paradigms, they are too general, too poorly specified, and too narrowly operationalized to adequately trace the parameters of the new wave of transnational contention that has swept across the globe since the "Battle of Seattle" in 1999. The goal of this paper is to disaggregate these general paradigms into researchable hypotheses about the organizations and coalitions involved in transnational social movements and to identify some key mechanisms that can help us to better understand whether a new and contentious transnational society is developing. A process called "scale shift" from the national to the transnational levels of contention is specified through a number of interlocking mechanisms: diffusion, brokerage, attribution of similarity, emulation and coordinated collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree to which transnational civil society can effectively impose sanctions on repressive regimes by eliciting corporate withdrawal beyond what is required by governmental sanctions. The test case is the Free Burma Coalition, which represents the most extensive campaign for nongovernmental sanctions since the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s. Four techniques are examined: (1) consumer pressure; (2) shareholder pressure; (3) municipal procurement power; and (4) plaintiff’s diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Mexico’s apparent three-party system comes closer to a no-party system. It is the result of social forces and political factions that took advantage of institutional changes resulting from the loss of elite consensus to defend either tradition or change, without committing to parties. The "vibrant" civil society praised by many is a sign of a weak government and leads to a dangerously high ratio of participation to institutionalization. Paradoxically, because parties are weak, rule of law can only be achieved through corruption, by backwards accommodation with traditional elites and practices. Three patterns of local political openings over the last fifty years correlate with three of Huntington’s phases of party development. Together they demonstrate both the weakness of political parties today, and the hope for democratic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]