NGOs, civil society and the State: Building democracy in transitional countries (original) (raw)

‘State Bureaucrats’ and ‘Those NGO People’: Promoting the idea of civil society, hindering the state

One of the characteristics of Polish foreign aid is its focus on the ‘transition experience’ and civil society. This specific celebration of the ‘Polish success story’ contrasts sharply with public debates that frequently criticise the weaknesses of Polish civil society and the difficulties in state – non-state relations. The Polish Aid apparatus itself is not immune to these problems, often exhibiting antagonistic relations between NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By looking at the relations linking these stakeholders this text aims to analyse relations between the ‘state’ and ‘civil society’ in Poland. As the text demonstrates, complicated contemporary relations between NGOs and the State are first the outcome of the country’s troubled history of civil society, and an inheritance of the Solidarity movement when the concept of civil society was built on the idea of opposition to the state. Second, the anti-state attitude characterising contemporary organisations was also fostered by foreign institutions, which supported the Solidarity movement in its efforts to overturn the socialist regime in Poland, and later in the 1990s, became the strongest proponents of civil society and NGOs. Finally, these preexisting historical conditions for the strong polarisation of NGOs and state institutions are now additionally reinforced by the ‘professionalization’ and ‘institutionalisation’ of NGOs. However, the uncritical promotion of ‘Western standards’ exhibited in the ideals of transparency and audit culture, rather than generating positive change only antagonises NGOs and state institutions. The ultimate effect of this process is that NGOs become more and more obsessed with bureaucratic modes of operating, and start to resemble state institutions. Effectively, NGOs risk losing their identity which is so strongly built on the non-governmental aspect of their work. Effectively, the perpetuation of the state/non-State opposition becomes a strategy which allows this separate identity to be maintained and NGOs status to remain unchallenged.

Civil society, public sphere and NGOs nowadays

Organisationskommunikation, 2019

In a post-modern context, the terms civil society and public sphere go hand in hand. The former can be traced back to the Aristotelian concept of koinonia politike that was after translated into the Latin version as societas civilis (Hallberg & Wittrock, 2006, p. 29). After following its own road with political philosophers, historians and other social scientists, as well as the term’s definition by Hegel, as part of a well-ordered set of relations among various spheres of action in a complex society, the term started to gain importance during the 1980s and 1990s, although it can be questioned whether “the increase in frequency of use does not go along with a decrease in the clarity of the concept” (Wagner, 2006, p. 1).

Civil Society: A Paradigm or a New Slogan?

The Ecumenical Review, 1994

Civil society is a space characterized by diversities, tensions and contradictions. Theoretically and practically, it is approached differently in various political traditions and contextsby people in the street, among dynamic groups and movements and by policy-makers at the World Bank. Civil society is an appealing concept at this transitional historical moment. Daniel Bell has noted that the "demand for a return to civil society is a demand for a return to a manageable scale of social life, one which emphasizes voluntary associations, churches and communities, arguing that decisions should be made locally and should not be controlled by the state and its bureaucracy". In exploring the ecumenical relevance of this concept against the backdrop of the institutional crises affecting state and society today, we should take care to affirm the diverse opinions of marginalized and excluded people.