Tool Category E: Political Development and Governance 19.

Civic Society-Building
Civic society-building strengthens independent non-governmental and non-military organizations, including helping voluntary organizations develop legal, financial and regulatory frameworks.

Description

Civic society can be defined as the political space between the individual and government, expressed by membership in NGOs, social groups, associations, and other organizations which may, among other activities, advocate political positions on behalf of their members. Civic society-building aims to support democratic pluralistic society and peaceful political transition to democracy. Building civil society increases opportunities for individuals and groups to interact politically with the government to achieve major political changes such as electoral reform or executive power-sharing, contributing to democratic transition and consolidation. Well-established civic society institutions allow citizens to influence political decisions effectively without directly competing for governmental political power; politically empower marginalized groups toward longterm goals of equal political opportunity; improve government accountability and political behavior; "encourage citizens to respond actively to problems that concern them; and, through such responses, to buildor rebuilda civil society: a society in which ordinary citizens trust each other, organize voluntarily to achieve common ends, expect local government to respond to their needs, and participate generally in the public life of the community."

Objectives

Expected outcome or impact

Building civil society contributes to a pluralistic, informed, participatory, and tolerant society; the public may be able to pressure the state to open up political space for civil society and to promote a civil society that includes broad cross-sections of the community. At the same time, effective civic institutions may help to strengthen the state by increasing its accountability and responsiveness. Civil society can keep ethnically non-dominant groups issues and views alive following elections by continuing the political debate even if the group has failed to achieve a majority. People who do not choose to vote in elections can still participate through issue awareness and local self-help groups organized by civil society organizations. Strengthening independent actors capacity in civil society can contribute to stability by broadening participation and enhancing prospects for democratic accountability and responsiveness. Civil society can play an important role in managing conflict by providing minority ethnic groups with a political voice which is not otherwise available in the majority-dominated official political process. Civil society development can lessen the risk of violent conflict or terrorism to destabilize the government by giving citizens alternative non-violent avenues to influence the government, allowing citizens to undertake overt and peaceful political activities rather than participate in or support armed opposition. Strong advocacy groups in civil society are a crucial element of controlling corruption, indispensable to responsible government and political stability. Participation by civil society acts as something of a safeguard against government arbitrariness, providing minority interests with an incentive to comply with the rules in the hopes that in the future the laws will more nearly approximate their wishes.

Relationship to conflict prevention and mitigation

Implementation
Organizers Participants

Civic society-building can be organized by extgernal actors such as NGOs, regional or international organizations. Civic society-bujilding can also be organized by local actorsNGOs, political parties, or the churches, labor unions, business organizations, human rights groups, civic organizations, and the individual citizens actively involved in communal life that themselves make up civic society. Local non-governmental groups and individuals participate in building the institutions of a responsible civic society. Effective institutions in civic society perform a range of functions that contribute to democratic transition and consolidation and to conflict prevention and mitigation. These include: Scrutinizing and containing the power of the state. Educating people about public affairs, political issues, and their civic rights and duties. Increasing citizen participation, efficacy, and skill. Developing a democratic culture of tolerance, moderation, and willingness to compromise. Providing additional channels to represent diverse interests. Recruiting and training new political leaders. Advocating and lobbying governments, multilateral institutions and regional organizations on civic

Activities

development issues. Watching and challenging the state. Monitoring elections and government performance. Civic society-building refers to the gamut of activities that encourage the formation of civic organizations or that support existing organizations capacities to act for change. Typical components include: Deregulating political activitiesguaranteeing freedom of speech, the press, association, collective activities, and deregulation of business activities such as freer investment, freer market control, automatically encourage the form of civil societal organizations or activities within a society. Strengthening research, training, and advocacy organizations in civil society "in order to generate informed political pressures on the state to undertake democratic reforms" which can reduce or prevent violent conflict. Sponsoring programs to strengthen democratic governance, including local government and public accountability at all levels. Assisting NGOs through start-up support, staff training, with limited ongoing support as necessary. Training can cover specialized skills such as civic education, grant proposal writing, financial accounting, and public opinion polling. Provide guidance, mentorship and training to political parties covering drafting a constitution or bylaw for their party, facilitate meetings, recruit volunteers, elicit active participation, expand membership, hold elections, tolerate difference, resolve conflict, raise funds, manage projects, advocate policies, build networks of associations, and relate to the press, public, and government.

Cost considerations Other resource considerations Set-up time Timeframe to see results

Assistance to civil society generally requires a heavy investment of education and training in how to form, build, and run an organization democratically. In poor countries or those with massive inequalities, groups seeking to reform the political process will likely require incentives and skills to develop indigenous funding sources. Experienced trainers and technical assistants may be required. Other frequent needs are equipment, infrastructure, project funding, and general operational support. Civic society-building is a slow and gradual process. Civil society-building efforts can yield limited results quickly but is essentially a long-term process, taking several years. Civil society-building is part of the process to democratize a countrys political system and as such is more effective at preventing than mitigating conflict. Civic society-building encourages political stability and is therefore most relevant to pre- and post-conflict stages. Building strong civic institutions is useful for any type of conflict. Building civic society addresses the structural causes of conflict. Expanding civic activities depends on a number of factors including the governments behavior and traditions. Countries dominated by militant religious or political doctrines are relatively infertile ground for civil society development because these doctrines channel social energy into non-civic state-dominated activities. A government can encourage growth of civil society institutions by passing laws recognizing and promoting the growth of non-profit organizations, introducing some forms of direct democracy, and decentralizing government. Civil society can only act as an organized counterweight to the state to a limited extent without the help of political parties and expressly political movements. Philippines. Keys to Philippine democracy are its attempt to devolve powers to local governments and to develop diverse and vibrant civil society organizations. To achieve this goal, USAID/Philippines created three interrelated and mutually supportive activities: 1) directly assisting the Leagues of Provinces, Cities and Municipalities to establish effective local governance with broad-based participation; 2) ensuring the active and effective participation of disadvantaged and underrepresented groups through coalition-building efforts; and 3) assisting pro-democracy organizations in formulating a Philippine Democracy Action Agenda. USAIDs cofinancing assistance to NGOs has evolved from using NGOs as an alternative to government in the delivery of services, to institution-building of NGOs, to collaborative projects with government, and as intermediate conduits of assistance to other smaller, younger NGOs. Other examples. Four core grantee institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) family fund a wide variety of grants that aim to develop civic society in post-Communist and developing countries, including support for independent social movements, civic education and democratic trade unions in several dozen new or partial democracies in central and eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including civic and voter education in 29 countries. With field offices in twenty developing and post-Communist countries, a staff of regional and functional experts in Washington,

Conflict context
Stages of conflict Type of conflict Causes of conflict

Prerequisites

Past practice
Outside the Greater Horn

and democratic politicians, civic organizers, election monitors and other practitioners from more than 70 countries, these experts volunteer their time to share their experiences. Several other private, nonprofit US organizations, with independent identities and structures of governance, rely heavily or almost entirely on US public funds to perform various democracy promotion functions. NGOs have the flexibility of using nonAmerican teachers and trainers to promote diffusion of democratic knowledge and enable developing democracies to learn from one another. The Asia Foundation aids the development of NGOs through start-up support and staff training and sponsors programs to strengthen democratic governance in several dimensions, including local government and public accountability at all levels. The Asia Foundation had a total cash budget in FY94 (considerably larger than the NED discretionary grant program) and has some 14 field offices in Asia "which give it intimate knowledge of each country, sensitivity to its culture, and a longterm presence that allows for an emphasis on incremental change." The Eurasia Foundation makes grants to develop the nonprofit sector, including strengthening NGOs. The National Endowment for Democracy has made grants to US institutions such as the League of Women Voters to promote overseas civic organizations. Canadas International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development provides financial, political and technical support primarily to NGOs such as human rights and womens organizations and independent trade unions. Private sector organizations focussing on democratic civic education and strengthening civil society include the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE), which makes grants and facilitates communication to support NGO activity in the former Soviet Union. The American Federation of Teachers, a US trade union, conducts civic education programs. The National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law educates students in several countries on civic rights and responsibilities. The London-based Charity Know-How helps voluntary organizations in the former Eastern Bloc countries to develop the legal, financial, and regulatory frameworks, coordinating bodies, and other skills they need to operate effectively. The American Committee for Aid to Poland helped to strengthen civil society organizations in Poland and support the development of NGOs. Private foundations have been devoting an increasing share of their resources to building democratic institutions and civil societies, including the German Marshall Funds Political Development Program which shifted its emphasis to civil society. Their activities include grants (many with USAID funding) to support NGOs and citizenship training, and efforts to counter discrimination against ethnic minorities. An increasingly wide range of civic and lobbying organizations traditionally concerned with US domestic politics have become involved in civic society-building efforts in other countries. International and regional organizations recently have become more involved in supporting civic society-building efforts: the European Union is sponsoring programs known as Phare in eastern Europe and Tacis in the former USSR, which target non-state, non-profit-making bodies in civil society, offering small-scale grants to initiatives of indigenous actors. A micro-projects facility for Central and Eastern Europe provides small grants (approximately $3,00010,000) to stimulate grassroots activity and to enhance the development of a wide range of NGOs. Phare/Tacis projects support NGOs working for human rights, civic education, conflict resolution, and interethnic tolerance. The EU requires that programs link participating NGOs in the post-Communist countries with a vast array of partners from across the European Union, which help to diffuse skills, resources, and the culture of democracy "while gradually building at the non-governmental level some of the organizational basis for a pan-European society." The Council of Europe sponsors seminars on the role of NGOs in a democratic civil society. The development of strong civic organizations in societies previously limited by authoritarian regimes can allow democratic values to evolve through non-violent conflict. Aid to groups, including exile groups, under such circumstances is often the most effective way to pressure for democratic change; in many countries, civil organizations, especially broad civic coalitions, have been at the forefront of pressure for democratic transitions.

Evaluation
Strengths

Building civic society can increase the effectiveness of coalitions of individuals for innovative activities and institutionalize competition and acceptance of opposition. A network of civil associations can promote political stability and effectiveness by encouraging tolerance, cooperation, and civic engagement, and improve associations ability to mobilize citizens on behalf of public causes. In the aftermath of a civil conflict or a long legacy of authoritarian government and repression, people distrust public institutions and their fellow citizens. This distrust is what makes a vibrant civil society and its interaction with government so essential, especially at the local level. Aiding actors in civil society can create tensions. Governance can be undermined if strengthened groups challenge and oppose the state. Decentralization in the absence of stable democratic institutions and mechanisms may result in secessionist movements or the central governments inability to implement its policies at the local level. Conflicts among groups in civil society can spill over into civil disruption and violence in the absence of specifically political settlements. Aiding numerous interest groups can produce a flood of appeals for funding and generate conflicts of interest. Civil society programs can cause backlash by non-dominant or dominant groups, or by the government if it is threatened by the programs. Few African civil institutions broadly include diverse elements and therefore generally cannot bridge ethnic, linguistic, or other divisions in the community. "Civil society [in most African countries] needs to improve its understanding of how democratic institutions function." The US government hand is too visible in developing and implementing civic society-building programs in

Weaknesses

other countries, undermining the principle that government should not control all aspects of society. Major powers like the US should have non-governmental instruments that can react quickly and engage civil society actors who might be suspicious of official aid agencies or who might become the object of diplomatic friction between the power and a hostile host government. There is less risk and suspicion when funding comes from a non-governmental agency, which is not as bound by political constraints. Civil society alone, even if well-developed, cannot bring about democratic governance and stability because achieving democracy depends on government commitment. While aid to civil society can empower democratic groups, it cannot achieve a democratic transition without additional international pressures, favorable fractures in the regime, or other changes in society and politics that take place gradually, over a long period of time. Loyal, strong, unified opposition parties are also important. Not all civic activities are benign in their political intentions and effects on conflict, and not all organized civic groups contribute positively to effective governance. International donors should proceed cautiously with support to civic society development, monitoring and evaluating the impact over time and the balance between the state and civil society, and weighing the longterm consequences of their assistance. As a general rule, according to one analyst, non-governmental foundations and smaller countries aid agencies should assist civil society groups that challenge the established social or political order, while large official development organizations should concentrate on developing formal institutions and civil society sectors that are less controversial. Some observers suggest that donors should channel less aid to governments and more to non-governmental civic groups, identifying which are the democratic forces. Others warn that international assistance to local NGOs weakens them by creating dependencies, leaving them unable to increase their capacity on their own or to relate successfully to other indigenous NGOs: promoting civic groups risks increasing fragmentation. Some observers believe donors should emphasize civic education programs that are essential to the democratization process and to reducing ethnic conflict. "Protecting ethnically non-dominant group rights through civic education, as well as through legal and constitutional arrangements, is a difficult and lengthy process, but it is an essential task." Third parties conducting civic education should consider the indigenous civil societal structure and its political effectiveness within the formal decision-making process to develop locally acceptable programs. Greater efforts in most African countries are needed "to strengthen civic education and activism in support of democratic governance through school curricula and NGOs that monitor human rights and act as advocates in advancing democratization." Donors should leverage limited resources regionally through collaboration and cost-sharing with other donors. Over the past 30 years, many African governments have not tolerated "active group life" in society and have discouraged or prevented people from organizing into associations, welfare groups, trade unions, professional organizations, and other entities that form the basis of civic society. The private use of state power requires an authoritarian system of government, which dictates against the development of civil society. As civil society is independent of the state, it may be capable of generating resistance to an authoritarian regime. A situation where the state is unresponsive, its institutions are undemocratic, or its democracy is ill-designed to recognize and respond to citizen demands, and citizens find their efforts to organize for civil ends frustrated by state policyeither actively repressed or simply ignoredmay produce increasingly aggressive and violent forms of civil association, as more and more ordinary citizens will be driven into either active militancy against the state or "self-protective apathy." Harry Blair et al., Civil Society and Democratic Development: A CDIE Evaluation Design Paper. Gary Hanson, USAID Evaluation of Civil Society. Seligman, Adam B., The Idea of Civil Society, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1995.

Lessons learned

References and resources

John Harbeson, Donald Rothchild, and Naomi Chazan (eds)., Civil Society and the State in Africa, Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1994. Migdal, Joel S., Strong Societies and Weak States, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1988 Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Citizens: Strengthening Global Civil Society, 1994. USAID Internet, Civil Society Program: USAID/Philippines.