Dont mention the war but: Could Britons draw lessons from German approaches to organised civil socie

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Dont mention the war but Could Britons draw
lessons from German approaches to organised
civil society?

• VSSN conference, London, Birbeck University16th
  May 2007

Ingo Bode At present University of Edinburgh
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Plan of the paper

• Introduction
• The Anglo-Saxon mainstream and its influence in
  Britain
• Civil society, state and social economy the
  German experience- the political dimension- the
  economic dimension
• Changing intermediation changing civil society
  An application of the argument
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• The sociological challenge looking at the
  societal embeddedness of organized civic action
• A key observation a seperationist Anglo-Saxon
  mainstream of conceptualizing civil society
• The suggestion adopting a German view on
  organized civic action
• The background A broad literature review
  undertaken for one of the EU networks of
  excellence (CINEFOGO) and a number of
  comparative case studies

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The Anglo-Saxon mainstream and its influence in
Britain (1)

• What is the Anglo-Saxon mainstream?
• Explicitly or implicitly, much of the Anglo-Saxon
  writing on civic action views civil society as a
  social sphere in which socially unbound
  citizens organise themselves to foster their
  community or to defend particular civic causes,
  and as a sphere which is organically separated
  from the political and economic world out there
  
• From this emanate dichotomic distinctions between
  - state and civil society- civic and economic
  action

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The Anglo-Saxon mainstream and its influence in
Britain (2)

• Where is this Anglo-Saxon mainstream?
• Leading philosophers of communitarianism
• The proponents of associative democracy
• The supporters of Third way politics
• The academia concerned with the (threatened)
  independence of the voluntary sector
• going back to Anglo-Saxon social and political
  history

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Civil society, state and social economy the
German experience

• Political intermingling, no structural opposition
  
• A tradition of viewing associations (Vereine)
  and interest groups (Verbände) as being
  organically involved in local politics and the
  governance of welfare state
• underscored by philosophical approaches to
  civil society as the socio-political foundation
  of the state (Hegel )
• and more recent contributions discussing the
  role of associations and social movements within
  the polity inter alia, by recourse to classic
  writing (Weber )

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• The economic character of organized civic
  action
• A recent reminiscence to the tradition of social
  economy- co-operative action (crowded out by
  the business agenda)- insurance mutuals
  (surviving to some degree)- social service
  provision (as an ongoing economic involvement)
• the economic dimension of civic action has being
  fundamental to the building of major institutions
  of the welfare state .
• and to the (socio-economic) character of the
  core of the Third sector in Germany the welfare
  associations

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Changing intermediation changing civil society
An application

• Welfare associations in todays Germany
• A corporatist tradition based on-
  institutionalized partnerships- political
  exchange- ressouring at arms length
• A transformation towards- disorganised
  partnerships- political campaigning-
  instability in ressourcing and infrastructure
  building

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• And Britain?
• A post-war configuration based on a
  junior-partner model embracing- a more or less
  collaborative welfare state- major charities
  involved in (local) politics- a loose economic
  partnership
• and recent transformation towards- carrot and
  sticks policies of the state administration -
  with voluntary agencies on flexible contracts and
  - economic relations based on output
  accountability
• So there was more systematic political
  intermediation and
• an institutionally embedded economic
  collaboration
• in the past while things become disentangled
  today

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Conclusion

• In Germany, recent academic work on civil society
  chimes with the one dominating the Anglo-Saxon
  world
• Yet the German history of exploring the
  entanglement of the political, economic and civic
  dimensions of the voluntary sector provides a
  tool-kit for understanding current
  transformations in civil society and the welfare
  state
• While cultural and institutional differences
  remain, there may (exceptionally) be a case for
  bringing German thoughts to Britain, rather than
  vice versa