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Civil Society and Democratisation Theory: an Inter-Regional Comparison

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Civil Society and Democratisation Theory: an Inter-Regional Comparison Civil Society and Democratisation Theory: An Inter-regional Comparison Gideon. B. Baker Submitted in accordance with the requirements of degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Department of Politics September 1998 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others Abstract This thesis constitutes an inquiry into the relationship between civil society theory and democratic theory. It revolves around an investigation into, and comparison between, recent discourses on civil society originating from within diverse political contexts. This is in order to uncover what the central claims - both normative and programmatic - of civil society theory are in the contemporary era, how these relate to the political contexts within which they have originated, and why they reemerged when they did. The findings from this investigation then provided the material for a substantive critique of the overall coherence of recent civil society theory, and of the contribution of the idea of civil society to democratic theory and practice; they also enable a comparison of current ideas about civil society with classical civil society theory. The thesis presents a number of new arguments. Firstly, that all models of civil society, since their revival in the 1970s, make assumptions - though often hidden or unconscious - about what democracy is and of where it should take place. Secondly, recent notions of civil society are divided most clearly into radical and liberal-democratic models, with crucial implications for how civil society is conceived. Thirdly, civil society theory illustrates the close linkages between political ideas and the political base within which they are articulated; political discourse, despite its power to shape the political context, must itself evolve in accordance with the exigencies of the political base if it is to survive. Fourthly, contemporary civil society theory has shifted in a crucial aspect from classical civil society theory: while the latter was tied closely to liberalism, today's civil society theory is connected almost exclusively to democratic theory. Finally, it is argued that recent civil society theory adds little that is original to the lexicon of political theory. For despite the novelty of radical models of civil society from the 1970s and early 1980s (which, it is argued, have not retained their initial force), the idea of civil society figures increasingly as a rubric for already established liberal democratic orthodoxies about the desired relationship between the state and society. Civil Society and Democratisation Theory: An Inter-regional Comparison Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Civil society theory: the background and the research question 4 1. The history of a concept 4 2. Locating the thesis within the literature 10 3. The parameters of the thesis 14 4. Methodology 16 Chapter 2 The Central-Eastern European discourse 21 1. The Polish discourse on civil society 21 (i) Content, context and timing 22 (ii) The wider theoretical setting: the totalitarian paradigm 28 (iii) The politics of the civil society model 31 2. The Czechoslovakian discourse 39 (i) The Charter 77 discourse 39 (ii) The analysis of totalitarianism as 'the system of the lie' 49 (iii) Civil society and the counter-hegemonical properties of 'truth' 54 3. The Hungarian discourse 56 (i) The influence of the Polish model 56 (ii) The distinctiveness of the Hungarian model 59 4. Conceptualisations of civil society post-1989 64 (i) The decline of the radical model 64 (ii) The post-1989 hegemony of the liberal democratic model 70 Chapter 3 The Latin American discourse 80 1., The discourse on civil society on the Latin American Left 80 (i) The traditional antipathy to democracy and civil society 80 (ii) The rejection of orthodox Marxist theory 82 (iii) The influence of Gramscian categories 85 (iv) The new democratic theory and the idea of civil society 90 (v) From structuralism to voluntarism 98 2. The 'new social movements' debate and the idea of civil society 101 (i) The dissemination of the idea of civil society to the grass-roots 102 (ii) The Brazilian debate on urban social movements 106 (iii) The 'new social movements' debate 109 (iv) Problematising the NSM idea of civil society 119 3. Conceptualisations post-1989 124 (i) The decline of the radical model 124 (ii) The emergence of the transition debate 125 (iii) The debate on democratic consolidation 130 (iv) The minimalist approach to democracy 132 iii Chapter 4 The Sub-Saharan African discourse 136 1. The pre-1989 context 137 2. The post-1989 context 140 (i) The liberal model of an African civil society 143 (ii) The neo-Marxist model 148 (iii) Africanist critiques of a Eurocentric civil society concept 157 (iv) Can there be an 'African' civil society? 163 Chapter 5 Comparisons and contrasts 166 1. Comparing perspectives on democracy and democratisation 167 (i) Within pre-transition discourses 167 (ii) Within post-transition discourses 180 2. Comparing methodologies 185 Chapter 6 Towards a critique of contemporary civil society theory 188 1. The timing of rediscovery and the decline of the radical model 188 (i) The significance of timing 188 (ii) The decline of the radical model 190 2. The search for settled ideas about civil society 192 (i) Non-violence 193 (ii) Self-limitation 194 (iii) The critique of statism 196 (iv) The value of democracy 196 (v) Addressing the tension between individualism and collectivism 196 3. Assessing the contribution of contemporary civil society theory 198 (i) The contribution of the radical model 199 (ii) Problems with the radical model 201 (iii) The uncertain contribution of the liberal-democratic model 207 (iv) Gender exclusions within both models 208 Conclusion Civil society and Democracy 211 Bibliography 221 iv Acknowledgements This thesis took a dramatic change of direction one year into the research period. At this time of uncertainty, David Beetharn made an invaluable contribution in terms of keeping the research project alive and giving it new vigour. I am indebted to him for this, but also for his commitment to me and for his stimulating input throughout. I would also like to thank John Schwarzmantel, the other member of my supervisory team, for his thoroughness and discernment when responding to my work, and also for his encouragement to get the job done! My thanks goes also to my father, Bruce Baker, who has devoted large amounts of time and enthusiasm to my work over the last three years. The mental stimulation received in lengthy discussions with him, and his exhaustive (but up-beat!) critiques of drafts of the thesis, have both been of great benefit to me. I would particularly like to acknowledge his expertise in the area of African politics, from which I have gleaned much that has been helpful here. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Kate, for all her enthusiastic interest, patience and support throughout. Without her companionship, this period of research would have been very one-dimensional indeed. The following sections of this thesis have been published: Portions of the Introduction appear in: 'Civil Society and Democracy: The Gap Between Theory and Possibility', Politics, 1998 18(2). Section 1 of Chapter 2 is reproduced in full in: 'The Changing Idea of Civil Society: Models From the Polish Democratic Opposition', Journal of Political Ideologies, 1998 3(2). Section 1 of Chapter 3 is reproduced in full in: 'From Structuralism to Voluntarism: The Latin American Left and the Discourse on Civil Society and Democracy', Contemporary Politics, (Forthcoming). Chapter 4 is reproduced in full in: 'Caught Between Facts and Norms: The Concept of Civil Society in African Studies', Coventry University African Studies Unit, Occasional Paper Series, Paper No. 7. 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis analyses discourses surrounding the idea of civil society in, or in relation to, three regional contexts: Central-Eastern Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this inter-regional focus is to compare and contrast a cross-section of recent civil society theory drawn from diverse spatial and temporal contexts. An overview such as this, previously absent from the literature, goes a long way towards revealing the contours of recent thinking on civil society in terms of the origins and subsequent evolution of this thinking. In addition, this overview serves the double purpose, firstly, of shedding light on how and why the connection between the ideas of civil society and democracy has become established, and, secondly, as a basis for a comprehensive critique of current civil society theory from the perspective of democratic theory. The civil society concept is now ubiquitous within democratic theory, yet there is little knowledge of what, overall, contemporary civil society theory asserts about the meaning of democracy and the process of democratisation. Given this lack of a 'state of the art' overview or of detailed classificatory work, it has been difficult to sustain an argument about what civil society theory has to offer to democrats and democratisers today. Indeed, at present, the concept seems to escape thorough critique precisely because it can be infinitely redefined in political discourse. While this thesis cannot claim to be totally comprehensive, an inter-regional study of civil society theory does succeed in revealing broad trends, otherwise invisible, which go some way to laying the groundwork for such a critique. Due to the lack of analysis at this macro-level, and to the parochialism that therefore attends most studies, it has been difficult to establish the degree to which recent civil society theory reflects the exigencies of the specific political contexts within which it has been articulated. Put another way, there simply has not been a wide enough simple with which to begin to separate out the particular claims of theories of civil society from those that are more universal.
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