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DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society Faces Up to Itself

Sanjay Suri

GLASGOW, Scotland, Jun 24 2006 (IPS) - The vote was not surprising, but it was telling. Civil society members had asked them that rather difficult question: “Are political leaders listening to civil society?”

The vote was not surprising, but it was telling. Civil society members had asked them that rather difficult question: “Are political leaders listening to civil society?”

The verdict was not clear, because given the wide range of attendance at the world assembly of civil society organisations in Glasgow where the question was raised Saturday, everyone was confronting all the world’s differences among both civil society and politicians.

The first vote was on the question whether politicians in the country of the voting member were indeed listening to them. The answer, an overwhelming No.

But, differences across regions showed up in the voting pattern. There was a lot more Yes in Europe and North America, and a lot more No in Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, with Latin America somewhere in between.

And who do politicians listen to, more than to civil society? To big business, to foreign powers, to media. No surprises here either.

And what did civil society expect it could do? To voice its views, or to hope to influence policy and decisions? More than two-thirds thought it could hope to do no more than exercise the first of these options.

And so to the question that arose from all these. “If politicians are not listening, what are our strategies to make them listen,” Aruna Rao, director of the group Gender at Work and Chair of the Civicus board asked delegates.

It was time for some of the busiest in civil society to confront its weaknesses and to explore its strengths.

“We can lament that politicians are listening more to big business than to civil society, but why should they listen to us?” said Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), speaking from the panel.

“We believe that we have the right ideas and the right views, but we should not believe that we have legitimacy because we have good ideas. We have to win legitimacy in the marketplace of political ideas.”

That can happen, and has happened in all sorts of ways, Ryder said. In France recently trade unions teamed up with civil society to block legislation that denied young workers many rights, he said. “Trade unions mobilise better when they do so in partnership with civil society,” he said. “That kind of alliance should become a major part of trade union work.”

And that was one way to get politicians to listen, Ryder said. “They will listen to us if we work together, they will listen to us if we make that difference.”

Abiola Tilley-Gyado from Plan International in Nigeria said politicians do listen, “but the ones that listen most are the ones not yet in power.” The opposition, she said, is in a sense civil society “because they are not yet state actors.”

But civil society has its own power that more politicians must listen to, she said. “We must recognise that civil society is by definition the custodian of social capital, what political leaders rely on. We must exercise the power we have, even if it is not political authority.”

But civil society must gain its own kind of legitimacy first, she said. “We must be self-critical, be prepared for a rigorous and robust review process amongst ourselves, be prepared for peer review amongst us.”

And the “us” is a quite divided lot, she pointed out. “So many groups are dying for funds for reproductive health,” she said. “But they are being denied due to the ideological beliefs of some donors. And the people who are feeding those beliefs are a part of civil society. These governments are listening to people who are a part of us. So how can we better understand each other?”

So here government is listening to civil society, but not to the kind of civil society that would gather at a meeting like this organised by the group Civicus and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Eventually politicians will listen if civil society finds strength enough. In Chile, said Peter Ackerman, chair of the International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict, a movement against Augusto Pinochet grew after groups of people began to protest by walking and driving at half their normal pace.

A delegate from Nepal spoke of what civil society has just achieved there. “Civil society has shown how legitimacy can be achieved by its own effort, not by the mercy of government,” he said. “People should look at the example of Nepal to see how civil society can play a better role.”

Politicians and civil society are also not always strictly separate worlds. “Politicians sometimes dominate civil society, so how can it then achieve legitimacy,” a delegate from Lebanon said. “So we have a lot of work to do in our own house, to ensure our legitimacy.”

Manny members brought up again the idea that democracy is more than just that vote cast once every four or five years. But that must not mean a confrontation is inevitable with the politicians an election throws up, said Ryder.

“Civil society is very constrained where there is no democracy,” Ryder said. “We should be the first to protect democratic choices.”

But some civil society confrontation with politicians will not go away. “Of course, who are we that they should listen to us,” a delegate said. “But who are they that we should listen to them?”

The government in Britain was elected by 37 percent of the voters, 17 million registered voters did not vote at all. So who will speak for the rest? Civil society? But who is agreed on that?