Civil society, the state, and the limits to global civil society
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13600820600576423
ISSN1469-798X
Autores Tópico(s)Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism
ResumoAbstract Just as domestic civil society is widely regarded as serving the greater common good of a national democratic political community, global civil society is also promoted as a vehicle through which a host of humanity's ills may be remedied. This article argues that the pinning of such high hopes on global civil society is mistaken, for its proponents have failed to recognise that global civil society is insufficiently analogous to domestic civil society for it to be a similarly positive force. At the national level, civil society functions in a balanced interdependence with the state. At the global level there is no equivalent of the state to provide the necessary scrutiny and regulation that at the national level prevents constituents of domestic civil society from committing injustices. Notes 1Civil society translates as koinònia politiké in Ancient Greek; see Aristotle, The Politics and the Constitution of Athens (ed. Stephen Everson) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). 2Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). 3For an account of the 'democratic revolution' that was written around the time the Berlin Wall was falling, see Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991). 4Michael Walzer, "Introduction", in Michael Walzer (ed.), Toward a Global Civil Society (Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1995), p. 1. 5See, for example, Vaclav Havel, Vaclav Klaus and Petr Pithart, "Civil Society after Communism: Rival Visions", Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1996), pp. 11–23; Wilmot James and Daria Caliguire, "The New South Africa: Renewing Civil Society", Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1996), pp. 56–66; Robert Fine, "Civil Society Theory and the Politics of Transition in South Africa", Review of African Political Economy, No. 55 (1992), pp. 71–83; and Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, "Sri Lanka: Civil Society, the Nation and the State-building Challenge", in Alison Van Rooy (ed.), Civil Society and the Aid Industry (London: Earthscan, 1998), pp. 104–133. For an argument that "civil society is unlikely to spread outside parts of Central Europe and Latin America", see John A. Hall, "The Nature of Civil Society", Society, Vol. 35, No. 4 (1998), pp. 32–41. 6The terms "global" and "globalisation" are older that some might think. The terms "globalise" and "globalism" were first used in 1944 by O. L. Reiser and B. Davies in their book Planetary Democracy: An Introduction to Scientific Humanism and Applied Semantics. The term "globalisation" first appeared in an English-language dictionary in 1961. See J. A. Scholte, "The Globalization of World Politics", in John Baylis and Steve Smith (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 14. 7For a good cross-section, see Paul Ghils, "International Civil Society: International Non-governmental Organisations in the International System", International Social Science Journal, No. 133 (1992), pp. 417–431; Paul Wapner, "Environmental Activism and Global Civil Society", Dissent, Vol. 41, No. 3 (1994), pp. 389–393; Miguel Darcy de Oliveira, "The Case for Global Civil Society", National Civic Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (1995), pp. 130–132; Glenn Kowack, "Internet Governance and the Emergence of Global Civil Society", IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 5 (1997), pp. 52–57; and Jackie Smith, "Global Civil Society?", American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1998), pp. 93–107. 8Cf. N. Chandhoke, "The Limits of Global Civil Society", in M. Glasius, M. Kaldor and H. Anheier (eds.), Global Civil Society 2002 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 35–53. 9Max Weber, Essays in Sociology (trans., ed. and intro. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills) (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1948), p. 78; emphasis in original. 10Alex de Waal, Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry (London and Oxford: African Rights and James Currey, 1997), p. 65. The same argument can be applied, if not more strongly still, to global markets. In recent years, virtually unregulated hedge funds, currency speculators, tax-haven banking, and the free hand afforded to transnational corporations have had many ill effects on the well-being of peoples and economies all over the world. Nevertheless, this is a concern that will have to be set aside here, for this article will deal only with the deficiencies of global civil society. 11Three of these are: John Keane (ed.), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives (London: Verso, 1988); Jean L. Cohen and Andrew Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994); and Ernst Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals (New York: Allen Lane, 1994). 13Gellner, op. cit., p. 1. 12Larry Diamond, "Toward Democratic Consolidation", Journal of Democracy, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1994), pp. 5–6; emphasis in original. 14 Ibid., p. 211. 15See John Locke, Two Treatises of Government 1690 (New York: Mentor, 1965). 16John Keane, "Despotism and Democracy: The Origins and Development of the Distinction between Civil Society and the State 1750–1850", in John Keane (ed.), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives (London: Verso, 1988), p. 39. 17Cohen and Arato, op. cit., p. 91. The dating of the distinction is something of a moot point, but there is some evidence to suggest that it is detectable as early as Hobbes's Leviathan, in which he makes reference to "Systemes Subject, Politicall, and Private" and "Bodies Politique". See Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan 1651 (ed. and intro. C. B. MacPherson) (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), pp. 274–288. Similar evidence can be found in both Locke and Rousseau. For an argument that Cicero planted "the germ of the idea" of a "separation of state from society" on the basis of property rights, see Neal Wood, Cicero's Social and Political Thought (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp. 136–142. If the argument is to be based on property rights alone, however, an insufficient argument, the same could be said of the Greeks. See Aristotle, op. cit., pp. 12, 32–34. 18For example, Locke states: "Men by entering into Society and Civil Government, have excluded force, and introduced Laws for the preservation of Property, Peace, and Unity amongst themselves." See Locke, op. cit., para. 226, p. 464. See also Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract 1762 (trans. and intro. Maurice Cranston) (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), chs. 6–8. See Brett Bowden, "The Ideal of Civilisation: Its Origins and Socio-political Character", Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2004), pp. 25–50. 24 Ibid., p. 218. 19Keane, op. cit., pp. 36–39. Keane also argues that the work of David Hume maintains the "classical understanding of civil society". Such an observation is problematic, however, when one considers that, as contemporaries and friends, Hume and Ferguson—and Adam Smith—regularly engaged in debate and were almost inevitably influenced by each other's thoughts. Whilst it might appear that in some passages of A Treatise of Human Nature Hume draws no distinction between civil society and the state, as is the case where he writes "Of the Origin of Government". Like Hobbes, elsewhere he makes a clear distinction when writing of men in society forming "leagues" and "alliances" as he articulates "the boundaries of our public and private duties". See David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature [1739/40], Vol. 2 (London: Dent, 1956), pp. 238, 245–247. 20Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society 1767 (ed. Duncan Forbes) (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966). 21 Ibid., p. 142; emphasis in original. 22See Jean Jacques Rousseau, "Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality among Men", in J.J. Rousseau, The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings (ed. Victor Gourevitch) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 111–222. 23Ferguson, op. cit., p. 183. 25 Ibid., p. 258. 26 Ibid., p. 218. 27This does not mean the absence of an army altogether, rather that the protection of one's society is the duty of all of its capable citizens. 28Keane, op. cit., p. 42. 29Paine is said to have commenced work on the Rights of Man no fewer than four days after the appearance of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. See Derek Matravers, "Introduction", in Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 1996), p. viii. 30Keane, op. cit., p. 47. See Paine, op. cit., pp. 34, 104. 31Paine's remarks require some qualification. Although it might appear as though Paine is some sort of laissez-faire libertarian, this is not the case. In Part Two of Rights of Man and again in Agrarian Justice, Paine goes to considerable lengths to articulate and cost an extensive system of state-provided social welfare. Included in it are the provision of education and child benefits, relief for the poor and unemployed, maternity and death grants, and age pensions. See Paine, op. cit., Part Two, ch. V, pp. 165–222; and, "Agrarian Justice 1795–6", in Thomas Paine, The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2 (ed. Philip S. Foner) (New York: Citadel Press, 1945), pp. 605–623. 32Thomas Paine, Common Sense and The Crisis 1776 (New York: Doubleday, 1960), p. 13; emphasis in original. 33At around the same time a similar attempt at balancing civil society and the state was being made across the Atlantic in The Federalist Papers. This is most readily apparent in James Madison's Federalist No. 10. See James Madison, "Federalist No. 10", in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist [1787/88] (ed. Benjamin Fletcher Wright) (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1961), pp. 129–136. 34See Cohen and Arato, op. cit., p. 91 and after; emphasis in original. It might be more accurate to assert that Hegel expounds the first modern theory of the state—of which civil society is a major component—to which perhaps only Bernard Bosanquet's The Philosophical Theory of the State (London: Macmillan, 1923), might be compared. 35G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right 1821 (trans. T. M. Knox) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), para. 289, p. 189. 36 Ibid., para. 273, p. 176. 37 Ibid., para. 257, p. 155. 38 Ibid., para, 142, p. 105. 39 Ibid., para. 155, p. 109. 40 Ibid., para. 261, p. 161. 41 Ibid., para. 260, p. 160. 42 Ibid., para. 260, p. 161. 43L. Arnhart, "History and the Modern State: Hegel's Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History", in L. Arnhart (ed.), Political Questions: Political Philosophy from Plato to Rawls, 2nd edn (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1993), p. 298. See Hegel, op. cit., para. 157, p. 105. 44 Ibid., para. 157, p. 110. 45 Ibid., para. 258, p. 156. 46 Ibid., addition to para. 258, p. 156. 47Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1835–40, 2 Vols. (ed. J. P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence) (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1969), pp. 246, 259–261. 48 Ibid., p. 691. 49De Tocqueville, quoted by Keane, op. cit., p. 57. I have used Keane's translation of the passage as it more vividly captures the spirit of de Tocqueville's concerns than the translation used above and below. The equivalent passage is at de Tocqueville, op. cit., p. 691. 50 Ibid., p. 253. 51 Ibid., p. 252. 52 Ibid., pp. 515, 697. 53For more of the specifics, see ibid., Vol. 1, Part II, ch. 8, "What Tempers the Tyranny of the Majority in the United States", pp. 262–276. See also Vol. 2, Part II, ch. 7, "Relationships between Civil and Political Associations", pp. 520–524. 54John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Representative Government ]1859–1861] (London: Dent, 1962), p. 68. 55 Ibid., pp. 72–73. 56 Ibid., p. 161. 57 Ibid., p. 75. 58Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology [1845/46] (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), p. 98. 60Karl Marx, "Preface to The Critique of Political Economy 1859", in Marx and Engels, ibid., p. 362. 59See Karl Marx, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte 1869", in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in Two Volumes (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1958), p. 284. 61Quoted in Shlomo Avineri, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 18. 62 Ibid., p. 21. 63Cohen and Arato, op. cit., p. 86; and Keane, op. cit., pp. 62–66. 64John Keane, "Introduction", in Keane, op. cit., p. 1. 65See the anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid, in particular chs. VII and VIII, "Mutual Aid Amongst Ourselves" and "Mutual Aid Amongst Ourselves (continued)", which can also be considered as having added to the late 19th- and early 20th-century discourse on civil society. Kropotkin, however, sought no balance between civil society and the state, as for him, the state was, by definition, an oppressive and corrupting authority. See Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution 1902 (Boston: Extending Horizons Books, n.d.). 66Paul Q. Hirst, "Introduction", in Paul Q. Hirst (ed.), The Pluralist Theory of the State: Selected Writings of G.D.H. Cole, J.N. Figgis, and H.J. Laski (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 6. 67See J.N. Figgis, "The Great Leviathan", in Hirst, op. cit., pp. 111–127. 68 Ibid., p. 16. 69 Ibid., pp. 21–22. 70It has been remarked that Gramsci's recasting of civil society "is not what associates him with Marx … but what distinguishes him from Marx". See Norberto Bobbio, "Gramsci and the Concept of Civil Society", in Keane (ed.), op. cit., p. 83. 71Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (eds. and trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith) (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1971), p. 12. Notably, on occasions Gramsci draws a further distinction between "political society" (government) and "the State", where the "State = political society + civil society"; see p. 263. 72 Ibid., p. 208. 73See, for example, Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974). 74Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation 1944 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), p. 71. 75Roger Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought: An Introduction (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1982), pp. 68–70. See Gramsci, op. cit., p. 56. 76Simon, op. cit., p. 69. 77 Ibid., p. 69. 78 Ibid., p. 69. 79Gramsci, op. cit., p. 56. 80See Aristotle, op. cit., pp. 4–5; Hobbes, op. cit., p. 262; Paine, Rights of Man, op. cit., pp. 85–87; Hegel, op. cit., p. 155. 81For a classical illustration of this, compare and contrast John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), the modern standard-bearer of liberal thought, with Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (London: Duckworth, 1988); or Michael Sandel, Liberalism and its Critics (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984). 82Jean Bethke Elshtain, "Not a Cure-all: Civil Society Creates Citizens; It Does Not Solve Problems", Brookings Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1997), p. 14. 83Amitai Etzioni, The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society (New York: Touchstone, 1993), p. 26. 86Krishnan Kumar, "Civil Society: An Inquiry into the Usefulness of an Historical Term", British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 3 (1993), p. 375. 84See Anthony Giddens, The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998), pp. 69–98. Falling into this category is Tony Blair's New Labour government in the United Kingdom, Gerhard Schroder's recent coalition government in Germany, and Bill Clinton's Democrat administration in the United States. See Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder, Europe: The Third Way—die Neue Mitte (London: Labour Party and SPD, 1999); and the White House, "The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century" (Washington, DC) (25 April 1999). 85Eva Cox, A Truly Civil Society (Sydney: ABC Books, 1995), p. 50. For a more sceptical account of the motives behind the advocacy of civil society, see Ellen Meiksins Wood, "The Uses and Abuses of 'Civil Society'", in Ralph Miliband, Leo Panitch and John Saville (eds.), Socialist Register 1990 (London: Merlin Press, 1990), pp. 60–84; and Bjorn Beckman, "The Liberation of Civil Society: Neo-liberal Ideology and Political Theory", Review of African Political Economy, No. 58 (1993), pp. 20–33. 87Simon, op. cit., pp. 72–73. 88Michael Walzer, "The Concept of Civil Society", in Michael Walzer (ed.), Toward a Global Civil Society (Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1995), p. 23. 89For an introduction to Michel Foucault's complex thoughts on power, see Michel Foucault, "Strategies of Power", in Walter Truett Anderson (ed.), The Truth About the Truth (New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1995), pp. 40–45; and S. Wolin, "On the Theory and Practice of Power", in J. Arac (ed.), After Foucault: Humanistic Knowledge, Postmodern Challenges (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991), pp. 179–201. 90Antonio Gramsci, Letters from Prison (ed. and trans. Lynne Lawner) (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), p. 204. 91Walzer, "The Concept of Civil Society", op. cit., p. 23. 92Diamond, op. cit., p. 6. 93Walzer, "The Concept of Civil Society", op. cit., pp. 16, 23. 94See Z. A. Pelczynski, "Solidarity and 'The Rebirth of Civil Society' in Poland, 1976–81", in Keane (ed.), op. cit., pp. 361–380. 95Robert D. Putnam, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital", Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1995), p. 65. See also Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993). 96Elshtain, op. cit., p. 15. 97Francis Fukuyama, The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order (London: Profile Books, 1999), p. 16; emphasis in original. For a more detailed account of social capital, see James S. Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1990), esp. ch. 12, "Social Capital", pp. 300–321. 98With some modification these parameters draw on definitions outlined in Diamond, op. cit., pp. 4–17; and Lester M. Salamon and Helmut K. Anheier, "The Civil Society Sector", Society, Vol. 34, No. 2 (1997), pp. 60–65. 99See Putnam's argument in "Bowling Alone", op. cit., pp. 70–73. For the counter-argument and an articulation of "global social capital", see D. Minkoff, "Producing Social Capital: National Social Movements and Civil Society", American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 40, No. 5 (1998), pp. 606–619. 100. Alejandro Colas, "The Promises of International Civil Society", Global Society, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1997), p. 271. 101. Ibid., p. 261. 102. See Alejandro Colas, "Putting Cosmopolitanism into Practice: The Case of Socialist Internationalism", Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1994), pp. 513–534. 103. Colas, "The Promises of International Civil Society", op. cit., p. 272; for a detailed account, see D. Stienstra, Women's Movements and International Organization (London: Macmillan, 1994). 104. The term is used by Alan Fowler, "Distant Obligations: Speculations on NGO Funding and the Global Market", Review of African Political Economy, No. 55 (1992), p. 27; and de Waal, op. cit., p. 66. On the other side of the argument is the claim that neo-liberalism requires a state strong enough "to enforce contracts, preserve property, and guarantee basic human freedoms of association and choice". See Gordon A. Christenson, "World Civil Society and the International Rule of Law", Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1997), p. 733. 105. Mustapha Kamal Pasha and David L. Blaney, "Elusive Paradise: The Promise and Peril of Global Civil Society", Alternatives, No. 23 (1998), pp. 431, 433, 438. Pasha and Blaney appear to be unaware that Gill has elsewhere stated: "an emerging global civil society and system of international political authority … might then provide the political space and social possibility to begin to mobilize for the solution to deep-seated problems of social inequality, intolerance, environmental degradation and the militarization of the planet". See Stephen Gill, "Reflections on Global Order and Sociohistorical Time", Alternatives, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1991), p. 311. 106. Jan Aart Scholte, "Global Civil Society: Changing the World?", CSGR Working Paper No. 31/99, Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (May 1999), p. 34, available: . 107. Ghils, op. cit., p. 429; emphasis in original. 108. See Paul Wapner, "Environmental Activism and Global Civil Society", Dissent, Vol. 41, No. 3 (1994), pp. 389–393; Paul Wapner, "Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics", World Politics, Vol. 47, No. 3 (1995), pp. 311–340; and Wapner, Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics (New York: CUNY Press, 1996). See also Ronnie D. Lipschutz and Judith Mayer, Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance: The Politics of Nature from Place to Planet (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996). 109. See Ann Marie Clark, Elisabeth J. Friedman and Kathryn Hochstetler, "The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women", World Politics, Vol. 51, No. 1 (1998), pp. 1–35. 110. Ulrich Beck, "The Cosmopolitan Manifesto", New Statesman (20 March 1998), p. 29. See also 'The Cosmopolitan Perspective: Sociology of the Second Age of Modernity', British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 51, No. 1 (2000), pp. 79–106; and "The Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies", Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 19, Nos. 1–2 (2002), pp. 17–44. 111. Scott Turner, "Global Civil Society, Anarchy and Governance: Assessing an Emerging Paradigm", Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 35, No. 1 (1998), p. 25. 112. Ronnie Lipschutz, "Reconstructing World Politics: The Emergence of Global Civil Society", Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1992), pp. 391, 398. 113. Martin Shaw, "Global Society and Global Responsibility: The Theoretical, Historical and Political Limits of 'International Society'", Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1992), p. 432. For a critique of this line of thinking, see Pasha and Blaney, op. cit., pp. 417–450. 114. Clark, Friedman and Hochstetler, op. cit., p. 35. 115. Rawls, op. cit., p. 3. 116. Ibid., p. 4. Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrett Bowden I am grateful to George Crowder for his helpful comments on the paper from which this article evolved. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their thoughtful suggestions.
Referência(s)