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Many argue that organizations of the disadvantaged create positive externalities, and inparticular strengthen the position of these groups in society. A natural inference is thatthese organizations should be subsidized. We argue that the benefits of expanding theoperations of these groups must be set against the potential costs of weakening the role ofthe disadvantaged in these organizations.
How meaningful in the term 'Civil Society' for Mozambique? This question kicks off the discussion in this article, first published in 1997 in a book, and now made available for the first time on the web. Mozambique: Perspectives on Aid and the Civil Sector, was commissioned by the Dutch Co-financing Agencies' Consultative Platform and offers an overview of associative life in Mozambique, both that supported by the aid system and that outside it.
From the realm of the Group of Eight (G8), to anti-globalisation protests, to Al Qaeda, ‘networks’ is the latest buzzword. We hear that networks represent the most effective organisational model. So too in the field of international development: researchers on social capital, organisational management and globalisation all talk of networks. Practitioners are setting up numerous networks and showing that they can improve policymaking processes – and particularly the use of information in them.
By Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow 1 September 2005
With the curtain falling on summer and the political season at hand, the news and analysis web site Forum.msk.ru last week posted the curious results of an opinion poll. The poll revealed a catastrophic decline in the approval ratings of the political parties that are currently represented in the State Duma. Strangely enough, if we are to believe this poll, no party is gaining from the falling popularity of others. People appear to be losing confidence in all the Duma parties at once.
Throughout the course of the UN World Summit in September, the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) will be hosting a special webpage showcasing civil society statements and position papers relating to this event. If you are interested in sharing your statements and papers, please send them to: ngls@un.org
Date
01/09/2005 - 20/09/2005
Time
12:00 am - 12:00 am
This report explores strategies employed by civil society organisations in various political contexts with the aim of influencing and strengthening the performance and responsiveness of the state.
20 October 2005
This insightful article by Ivan Krastev, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, Bulgaria warns of a new kind of 'civil society building' - ŕ la the Krelmin.
An excerpt:
Stability and preservation of the territorial integrity of the post-Soviet states is no longer a primary objective of Moscow’s policies. Russia’s new strategy in the making is – in a distorting echo of the
“guerrillas without guns” model pioneered by youth movements in countries to its west and south – based on exporting its own version of democracy and building pro-Russian constituencies in the post-Soviet societies. The major objective of this policy is to develop an efficient infrastructure of ideas, institutions, networks and media outlets that can use the predictable crisis of the current orange-type regimes to regain influence not simply at the level of government but at the level of society as well. Russia will not fight democracy in these countries. Russia will fight for democracy – its kind of democracy.
Moscow’s policy places civil society at the heart of its comeback strategy. In the view of one of the leading political technologists,
Sergei Markov, the revolutions of the 21st century will be NGO revolutions. They do not have a coordination centre or a single ideology; they are planned and launched in a most public way. “NGO revolutions are revolutions in the age of globalisation and information. It is meaningless to protest against this reality”, Markov writes; “everybody who wants to take part in the politics of the 21st century has to create his own networks of NGOs and supply them with ideology, money and people”.
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Last May, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's security service and a friend of President Vladimir Putin, gave a speech in parliament dripping with cold war-style rhetoric. Non-governmental organisations, he warned, were plotting to destabilise Russia; many were fronts for foreign intelligence.
ARTICLE 19 has published a report, which should give pause to donors and recipients that have shown great enthusiasm for new information technologies. The report examines the dangers of assuming information and communication technologies (ICTs) bring development, critical information and participation to all sectors of society.
This new field manual provides a well tested approach for promoting citizen participation. It breaks down the traditional boxes separating human rights, rule of law, development, and governance, and reconnects them in order to create an integrated approach to rights-based political empowerment.
A New Weave of Power, People & Politics combines concrete and practical action "steps" with a sound theoretical foundation to help users understand the process of advocacy planning and implementation.
written byLisa VeneKlasen with Valerie Miller
