Civil Society, Ethnicity and the State: a threefold relationship

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Civil Society, Ethnicity and the State a
threefold relationship

• An paper delivered by
• GEORGE SCHOPFLIN at the conference Civil Society
  in Austria, 20-21 June 1997
• Reviewed by Dolores Joseph
• SO203

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Theme

• This article states that democracy is made up of
  three key interdependent elements Civil
  society, state and ethnicity.
• Each of these elements have different functions
  and roles, sometimes overlapping and sometimes
  contradictory attitudes and aspirations. They are
  reshaped through continuous interaction.
• So civil society is not a static entity but a
  shifting one responsive to changes in politics
  and vulnerable to pressures. It is bound by other
  actors on the stage eg the government and how
  civil society reacts to policies and regulations
  imposed on them.

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Main Issues

• Civil Society
• described in the Collins Dictionary of Sociology
  means market and economic relations (in contrast
  with the activity of the state) a realm
  intermediate between the family and the state.
• Ethnicity
• Ethnicity as described by the Sociology
  dictionary means a shared (perceived or actual)
  racial, linguistic or national identity of a
  social group.
• The State
• as described by the Sociology dictionary is the
  overall territory and social system which is
  subject to a particular rule or domination.

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Civil Society

• It is suggested that the stronger the state, the
  weaker the civil society. Some argue that the
  state oppresses civil society. However it is
  difficult to imagine the civil society operating
  successfully without the state because the
  citizens are protected by the laws of the state.
• The state provides the framework in which the
  civil society operates with a degree of coherence

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Civil Society contd

• This framework includes the rule of law which is
  administered by the state machinery namely the
  judiciary, legislature and executive and
  disciplined forces
• Equally the civil society must be free to
  challenge the state in its rigid bureaucracy

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Ethnicity

• Sociologists tend to regard social groups as
  being identifiable in terms of cultural phenomena
  such as shared customs, institutions, rituals and
  language.
• Where a set of values and identity are shared
  between different social strata, where they
  regard one another as sharing certain
  commonalities, respond to the same symbols and
  share certain key moral aims and obligations, the
  basis for redistribution of power becomes less
  hazardous.

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Ethnicity contd

• Under pre-modern conditions the level of consent
  was lower, affected fewer people so that ethnic
  identities werent a major factor in the
  relationship between state and society but the
  growth of state power and capacity generated the
  need for a new basis of trust.
• If ethnic consent was absent, the redistribution
  of power could not take place or the state was
  divided, an example is the failure of the Royal
  Prussia as a state, German speaking but subject
  to the Polish crown.

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The State

• The State is a set of institutions that possess
  authority to make laws which govern people in one
  or more societies
• Where premodern states had subjects, modern
  states have citizens full members of political
  communities enjoying the right to vote, the right
  to stand for office, freedom of expression,
  welfare rights.

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Functions of the State

• The State makes laws, policies, rules and
  enforces legitimate use of force
• It is the legal and moral enforcer of laws,
  protects boundaries, is the impartial arbiter for
  conflict and
• legitimises citizenship, relationships and
  resources distribution (refer to Week 3 lecture
  notes)

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Citizenship

• Citizenship is defined in this analysis as the
  package of legal, political, institutional,
  economic, social and cultural relationships that
  bind society and the individual to the state and
  which govern political relationships within
  society.
• Citizenship is explicit, open to questioning
  directly and subject to continuous political
  engagement.
• It is through the rules of citizenship that civil
  society finds expression and there are
  procedures, mechanisms and provisions that make
  power transparent and predictable.

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Citizenship contd

• Without the stabilising element of citizenship,
  the exercise of power becomes arbitrary and
  generates insecurity this insecurity then reacts
  on ethnicity and can give rise to a sense that
  ones ethnic identity is threatened which can
  trigger off a deep-seated intolerance born of the
  fear that ones ethnic identity is in danger.
• This happens when the state is too weak to
  protect civil society or has no interest in doing
  so.
• The combination of state and ethnicity when used
  against civil society is what usually leads to
  the shift towards nationalism when ethnicity
  becomes the major issue in politics.

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Strengths

• The key proposition in this analysis is that
  citizenship, ethnicity and the state exist in
  mutual interdependence.
• The ideal situation is when a three-fold
  equilibrium comes into being which is a necessary
  condition for democracy.
• As is understood that threefold relationships are
  dynamic, the equilibrium does not have to be
  perfect.

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Strengths contd

• A variety of solutions are possible
• There are various models of democracy in Europe
  today for eg. France can be said to have a strong
  state, strong ethnicity and a civil society
  weaker than the state.
• In Italy there is an inefficient state but a
  well articulated civil society and a strong
  ethnicity resulting in citizenship-driven social
  action without the equilibrating function of the
  state.
• England has a high capacity state and growing
  stronger, a weakening civil society and a strong
  ethnicity with growing diversity of identities.
  (Refer to table of population from week 3 lecture
  2)

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Contd

• Almost every European state is multi ethnic and
  creates difficulties in the area of political
  management but the answer could be in the form of
  powersharing
• If they believe that in democratic states all
  citizens have equal right to cultural
  reproduction and share in material and symbolic
  goods then they identify fully with the state so
  the question of suspicion and distrust doesnt
  arise.

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Weaknesses

• Challenges to the state bring the danger of state
  failure, the most common one being the collapse
  of a multi ethnic state eg Austria-Hungary,
  Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
• In this analysis state failure is attributed to
  complete disappearance (Montenegro) the loss or
  addition of territory major upheaval like
  foreign occupation aftermath of civil war
  decolonisation and the loss of empire.

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Weaknesses contd

• The heart of the problem is that what is regarded
  as natural and normal like solidarity, loyalties
  and bonds are located in ethnic identity which
  obviously vary from one ethnic group to another.
  For eg how we perceive another group,
  stereotypes, mistrust which lead to racial
  divisions.
• This implies that the political and institutional
  systems, citizenship must be set up in such a way
  to cope with the renegotiation of power across an
  ethnic boundary.

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Weaknesses contd

• The distribution of power must take into account
  the imperative for majorities and minorities to
  provide security for both. Economic and political
  problems arise when one ethnic group dominates
  state power. Eg the apartheid in South Africa,
  and other Asian and Pacific states
• Ethnicity is not necessarily destructive of
  democracy, however, it can undermine democracy
  when either the state of civil society or both is
  too weak to contain it. For eg ethnic conflicts
  in Malaysia, Fiji and Sri Lanka
• Without citizenship cultural reproduction is
  threatened, without the state the framework for
  citizenship cannot operate.

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Relevance to the course

• This paper is relevant to the course because it
  gives us a historical analysis of how pre modern
  and modern states came into being, how people
  from smaller countries have totally lost their
  identity by merging with another or being lost in
  a bigger empire. We are losing some cultural
  values as globalisation continues to make an
  impact in the lives of smaller nation states.
• As social and cultural structures built over time
  are slowly eroding, the state and civil society
  have to find a new role and new relationship as
  they are now targets of the impact of
  Globalisation which is eroding the
  tradition-driven belief systems.