National Civil Society Research Articles

The Zapatistas and Global Civil Society: Renegotiating the Relationship

ERLACS – European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies is an Open Access, scientific journal. It publishes peer-reviewed articles in English and Spanish. Contributions reflect substantial empirical research and/or are theoretically innovative with respect to major debates within social science research (understood in the broadest sense, including history and economics) on Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to research articles, ERLACS includes 'Explorations' (a section in which new themes are presented and new debates are stimulated), review essays, book reviews, and film reviews. Articles are published online soon after they have been accepted.Sign up for our newsletter and read our latest issue!Special Collections:Violent configurations of power in MexicoVenezuela's crisis from global perspectivesElite and popular responsed to a left in crisisMega-projects, contentious action, and policy change in Latin America ERLACS – Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe es una revista científica de Acceso Abierto. Difunde artículos bajo la revisión de pares en inglés y español. Las contribuciones reflejan la investigación empírica sustancial y/o son teóricamente innovadoras con respecto a los grandes debates dentro de la investigación social (en el sentido más amplio, incluyendo la historia y la economía) en América Latina y el Caribe. Además de los artículos de investigación, ERLACS incluye 'Exploraciones' (una sección en la que se presentan los nuevos temas con el fin de estimular nuevos debates), ensayos de reseña, reseñas de libros, y críticas de cine. Los artículos se publican en línea poco después de haber sido aceptados.¡Suscríbase a nuestro boletín de noticias y lea nuestro último número!Números especiales:Venezuela's crisis from global perspectivesElite and popular responsed to a left in crisisMega-projects, contentious action, and policy change in Latin America

Cross currents: navigating gender and population linkages for integrated coastal management

Abstract Although the global community has recognized the importance of environment, gender, and population linkages in the Rio, Cairo, and Beijing action plans during the last decade, there has not been enough collaborative work by integrated coastal management (ICM), gender, and population organizations. The costs of not making these linkages are steep and immediate action is needed. By understanding these linkages and forming new partnerships, coastal managers can improve governance and planning, support more sustainable resource use/management, build capacity for ICM, and attract new funding sources. A proposed action agenda makes recommendations for national governments, civil society, donors, projects/programs, and researchers.

Selling Out Higher Education

The expansion of neo-liberal capitalism globally suggests an especially dangerous turn at the current historical moment, one that threatens both the substance of democracy as fundamental to the most basic freedom and civil liberties, and the very meaning of higher education. As the power of nation states and civil society to impose or make corporate power accountable is reduced, politics as an expression of democratic struggle is deflated and ethical responsibility appears irrelevant. As neo-liberal capitalism substitutes market relations for the rule of justice and law, it becomes more difficult for educators, students, and citizens to address pressing social and moral issues in systemic and political terms. This article addresses the fundamental shift in society regarding how we think about the relationship between corporate culture, higher education, and democracy. Specifically, it argues that one of the most important indications of such a change can be seen in the ways in which we are currently being asked to rethink the role of higher education. Underlying this analysis is the assumption that the struggle to reclaim higher education must be seen as part of a broader battle over the defense of public goods, and that at the heart of such a struggle is the need to challenge the ever-growing discourse and influence of neo-liberalism, corporate power, and corporate politics. The article concludes by offering some suggestions as to what educators can do to reassert the primacy of higher education as an essential sphere for expanding and deepening the processes of democracy and civil society.

Rule of Law in Latin America: The International Promotion of Judicial Reform

This volume analyzes the judicial reform processes funded by international donor organizations in Latin America. As billions of dollars are spent on judicial reform, it is pertinent to ask about the fate of these projects. The authors examine the way in which international organizations rationalize and prioritize their reform proposals and agenda in Latin America; how reform agendas are implemented and followed up (or not); how international donor organizations relate to national governments and civil society, and to each other; and what factors account for the successes and failures of their reform initiatives. The book also addresses the question of the connection between rule of law reform and broader processes of regime consolidation and state building, from both a political and a social perspective.

Civil Society and Global Governance: The Possibilities for Global Citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship.

Development NGOs: Actors in a Global Civil Society or in a New International Social System?

The international aid system forms a powerful structural force impacting organizational landscapes and civil societies all over the world in complex ways we do not yet understand. Dominant NGO research has failed to properly address this crucial issue, because of a conceptual, theoretical, and ideological tradition that is itself embedded in this very same system's normative, rhetorical agenda. This paper suggests some conceptual and theoretical approaches that should encourage more comparative research on the role of the development NGOs in shaping national and global civil societies

Changing Rural Power Structures Through Land Tenure Reforms: The Current Dismal Role of International Organizations

ABSTRACT Agricultural or rural development, although generally considered to be a process to improve the economic and social conditions of poorer groups in rural areas, signifies different things to different people. The meanings vary in terms of priorities to be considered, the means needed to achieve the set goals, and how the principal actors should co-operate. This paper examines the role of leading international agencies in sponsoring land tenure reforms—a role which had vanished from the development agenda in the 1980s and early 1990s, but which has resurfaced in recent years thanks to actions by national and international civil society organizations and to grassroots mobilizations. Promoting reforms in land tenure institutions and relations is key to reducing rural disparity and improving food security, income and family welfare among marginalized rural population groups. But modifying a rural power structure to promote the interests of the poorer and weaker segments of the rural population is a complex process, and the international organizations included in the analysis have focused their activities on less politically sensitive, subsidiary issues, leaving existing rural power structures and relations largely unimpaired. The paper is based mainly on secondary material, combined with primary information and the author's observations of a number of ongoing land reform initiatives.

An Interview with Comandante David, a Tzotzil Member of the Zapatista Delegation to Mexico City, 2001

Nicholas Higgins (*) On December 2, 2000, only one day into new presidency of Vicente Fox, Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced their intention to send a delegation to Mexico's capital city to seek ratification of law of indigenous rights and culture. In this way Zapatistas ensured that Mexican Indian conflict that has remained unresolved for seven years would stand at top of presidential agenda. They named this latest nonviolent rebel initiative the march for indigenous dignity. From very first, controversy, speculation, and concern surrounded proposed march. Although Zapatistas had sent delegates out to capital and even abroad in past, this was first time that a collective delegation of general command (the GG-CCRI) had left their rebel bases. In addition to this, inclusion of Subcomandante Marcos, who, at least theoretically, had not left his jungle hideout for some seventeen years, gave march an added profile, but one that also involved an added risk. Initially it appeared that security would be provided by International Red Gross (IRC). However, while Zapatistas made an official request for organization to participate, Mexican government did not. This failure of protocol on part of new Fox administration thus prevented involvement of IRC, leading Zapatistas to call upon members of national and international civil society to accompany them and act as their security. Although anonymous death threats were issued, in end Zapatista march, which began on February 25, passed off without any major security threat. Instead, Tutti Bianchi, from southern Italy, who were given task of protecting unarmed comandancia, found that their greatest challenge was to hold back thousands of enthusiastic well-wishers who sought personally to greet masked rebels as they made their way toward capital. Much like marches of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, to whom Zapatista initiative has been compared, as caravan passed from state to state support grew. By time delegation reached central square in Mexico City, two weeks after leaving southern state of Chiapas, such was popular backing that a crowd of more than two hundred thousand people turned out to greet them. In days that followed their arrival in capital, rebel delegation was hosted in south of city by staff and students of National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH). There they waited for news of whether or not they would be able to speak before Mexico's Congress of Union. On March 13, congress suggested rebel leadership meet with a subdelegation from congress and senate. The Zapatistas rejected this offer next day, demanding instead a historic opportunity to speak openly before whole congress. The interview printed below was conducted following day, March 15, with Comandante David, a Tzotzil Indian from highlands of Chiapas. David explains why Zapatistas undertook march and why they sought to speak before congress. Nicholas Higgins (NH): To begin, could you please tell me your rank and rank and role of your fellow companions that make up Zapatista delegation? Comandante David (CD): Those that are here are representatives of General Command of Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee [CG-CCRI] (1) of Zapatista Army of National Liberation. We do not work alone, however, and we share responsibility of CG-CCRI among many. We that are here are therefore only a delegation from general command formed of twenty-four members-that is twenty-three comandantes and one subcomandante. NH: Could you explain objectives of march and why comandancia have come to capital? CD: In first instance, well before we began this march of indigenous dignity as we call it, that is well before new President Vicente Fox began to announce so loudly his willingness to resolve problem of Chiapas by peaceful and political means, we wanted to express our recognition of new political situation in Mexico. …

The American Experiment and the Crisis of Community

The American experiment with democracy faces challenges due to the waning of the moral and religious underpinnings of the original social contract. Religion has played a key role in the development of an American civil society from the pre-revolutionary era to the present. The lessons of historical interpretation have much to offer in illuminating the nation's civil society. This essay evaluates Gordon S. Wood's thought, contrasting it with Alexis de Tocqueville and others, in light of the American tradition of political thought. Wood is a proponent of the civic republican approach to history, which advocates an expanded public sphere and is sceptical of the private realm of civil society. This approach, however, is outside the mainstream of American thought, for civil society has formed an essential component of American life from the earliest days of the colonial and national periods. A promising way to repair the breach in the American social contract is through a renewed awareness of the role of Christianity in the nation's genesis.

Global Governance and Strategies for Civil Society

In this paper we explore some linkages between globalisation, civil society and governance in order to develop a strategic approach to how civil society may engage with state and interstate institutions of governance. We propose that, just as national civil societies depend on and in turn support particular features in state systems, the prospects for an emerging global civil society also depend on similarly appropriate features in the institutions of regional or global governance. We discuss four possible relationships between civil society and governance institutions, depending on whether governance is facilitating or obstructive to civil society, and whether it is strong or weak. This suggests a range of strategies for non-government organisations (NGOs) and networks depending on the features of the institutions with which they are engaged. We then illustrate the model using the eventually successful campaign for East Timorese self-determination. This case shows how the strategic engagement of global civil society networks with state and interstate institutions eventually lead to a positive result through drawing these institutions into supportive roles.

Evaluating the 'New Politics' : Civil Society and the National Assembly for Wales

This paper focuses on an issue that underpins much of Labour's social and political reforms: civil society. Recent 'third way' treatises, from those by thinkers close to New Labour, such as Anthony Giddens, to Tony Blair's own published thoughts, declare that the regeneration of civil society is one of the primary goals of devolution and decentralisation. This paper focuses specifically on the relationship between the National Assembly for Wales and civil society in Wales, and in doing so examines the substance of the much-trumpeted 'new politics'. The overall objectives of the paper are to demonstrate why the relationship between the National Assembly and civil society in Wales is so important in formulating public and social policy and to assess how the National Assembly is building relations with civil society in Wales.

State autonomy & civil society: The lobbyist connection

The much‐noted decline of “state autonomy” theories owes partly to external challenges to state power, such as globalization, supranational regimes, and the like. But advanced democratic states have also long been seen as threatened from within, especially by powerful private interest groups. The extent of private‐interest influence on policy making depends in important part on corporate lobbyists, a group whose activities are chronicled in this essay. Lobbyists exercise considerably more autonomy from the private clients who hire them than has previously been acknowledged. This portrait ultimately suggests that the national state and civil society may be mutually supportive rather than strictly separate spheres.

The Westfailure system

From an international political economy perspective, the international political system of states claiming exclusive authority and the monopoly of legitimate violence within their territorial limits—the so-called Westphalia system—is inseparable from the prevailing capitalist market economy which also first evolved in Europe. Each was a necessary condition for the evolution of the other. To prosper, production and trade required the security provided by the state. To survive, the state required the economic growth, and the credit-creating system of finance, provided by the economic system. But the latter has now created three major problems that the political system, by its very nature, is incapable of solving. First, there is the major failure to manage and control the financial system—witness the Asian turmoil of 1997. Second, there is the failure to act for the protection of the environment. Third, there is a failure to preserve a socio-economic balance between the rich and powerful and the poor and weak. The Westfailure system is thus failing Capitalism, the Planet and global (and national) civil society.

Reaction and Retrenchment in the Highlands of Chiapas in the Wake of the Zapatista Rebellion

The Zapatista movement initially coalesced pan‐indigenous identities in broad alliances that raised hope for progressive political and social change in Chiapas. Yet broad alliances have also exposed the movement's grass roots to new and sometimes unwelcome inroads of power. As illustrated in this case study of current events in Zinacantan. in Chiapas's central highlands, these inroads have sometimes seemed to sharpen local‐level conflict and disempower ordinary people rather than empower them, evoking retrenchment and reaction that threatens to undercut the Zapatista base. The retrenchment also reflects concerted government effort to erode the Zapatista movement's ability to tap support from church groups, the media, and national and international civil society.

Introduction

The papers brought together here represent a part of the work of the IPRA (International Peace Research Association) Commission on Conflict Resolution and Peace Building that met during the 1994 Conference of the International Peace Research Association at Malta to address the issues of peace building in crisis areas. The focus here is particularly on new approaches to peace building, including United Nations reform and civil society innovation. After fifty years of UN peace building efforts, it is clear that the UN cannot function effectively without the involvement of civil society in each conflict region. How the UN, member states and civil society can interact effectively is an important new question for the peace research community, and these papers offer some fresh thinking on the subject.

A global security approach towards implementing sustainable development in southern Africa

SUMMARY An interactive and incremental developmental approach to sustainable development is proposed. It requires broad public participation, is based on the development of a shared value system for civic society and norms which determine the behaviour of states. It is aimed at building commitment rather than directing change. This is achieved by simultaneoulsy harnessing the notions of ‘positive human survival’ adopted from Global Security theory and a co-evolutionary approach to human socio-economic constructs. Modern threats to Nation States can be regarded as ‘threats without enemies’, are not compatible with traditional views of sovereignty, and confronting such threats frequently requires co-operative behaviour and good neigbourliness from states. Principles likely to underpin an evolving shared value system for Nation states and civil society include: democracy, equity and diversity. In order to deal with the uncertainty of evolving socio-economic constructs and the conceptual pluralism inherent in...