Civil Society Lecture: Interest Groups, Pressure Groups, Social Movements, Pluralism

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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 that there are
  lots of permanent groups that have to defend
  their interests
• Finer produced 10 categories things like
  churches, chambers of commerce, trade unions
• Distinguished from parties because didnt run 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 a population which represents preferences for
  changing some elements of the social structure
  and/or reward distribution of society (McCarthy
  and Zald, 1977)
• SMs are broadly conceived They differ from
  interest groups and pressure groups which are
  specific organisational phenomena
• Interest groups and pressure groups can become
  part of a 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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Corporatism

• Problematic term
• Has authoritarian pluralist connotations
• A system of interest representation in which the
  constituent units are organised into a limited
  number of singular, compulsory, non-competitive,
  hierarchically ordered and functionally
  differentiated categories, recognised or licensed
  (if not created) by the state and granted a
  deliberate representational monopoly within their
  respective categories in exchange for observing
  certain controls in their selection of leaders
  and articulation of demands and supports.
• (Schmitter in Rike Strich (eds.), 1974
  93-94).
• Mexico up to 2000 is a perfect example of
  corporatist state

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Civil Society?

• 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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Classic Definitions John Locke Georg Willhelm
Friedrich Hegel

• 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 no meaning
• Hegel 1- CS entails the protection of individual
  rights the needs of the rich in order to secure
  freedom in eco/soc/cul arenas 2- CS describes
  eco/soc/cul activity outside state control or
  coercion

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Classic Definitions Karl Marx Thomas De
Tocqueville

• Marx Bourgeois Civil Society an economic
  definition of CS
• CS is independent of government, separates the
  economic sphere from the personal and the
  political spheres, and has the bourgeoisie as
  its engine
• De Tocqueville CS Vs State
• The need to defend CS from states tendency to
  smother individual and social freedoms
• CS as the private sphere, independent of
  government intervention

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Reinterpretations of Civil Society Antonio
Gramsci

• Gramscis critique of Lenins universality
• Differences between West and East Europe 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 the
  family and clan and beyond the localitylying
  short of the state (1992).
• M. Walzer CS is the space of uncoerced human
  association also the set of relational networks
  - formed for the sake of family, faith,
  interests ideology that 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 or
  counterhegemonic political projects (Gramsci)

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Current Uses of the term III

• Contribution to democracy
• CS as sphere of civility a normative
  interpretation (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 INGOs NGO-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, civil liberties
  etc.
• Social and economic inequalities
• Political culture, ideological religious
  beliefs (can civil society co-exist with
  ideological totalitarianism? Can it exist within
  a religious state governed by a theocracy?)
• 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, civil servants)

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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 social reforms enabling free
  associations, free speech, free press etc.,
  granting legitimacy to civil society
  organisations (CSOs) previously OUTSIDE 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 and multinationals need for further
  transparency and liberalisation
• 1988 Neoliberal drive intensifies under
  President Salinas
• 1994 NAFTA
• 1994 Zapatista movement dramatises PRI
  totalitarianism for World Society
• 2000 Eventual defeat of PRI via free elections
  after over 70 years in 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 the principles of religious toleration,
  historical religions...are part of civil
  society(T. Asad, 1992 9)

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Transitions to Democracy II Middle East

• There is confusion in the Arab public mind, at
  least about the meaning of democracy. The
  confusion is, however, understandable since the
  idea of democracy is quite alien to the mind-set
  of Islam(E. Kedourie, 1992 1)

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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