Civil society at the turn of the millenium: Prospects for an alternative world order

Review of International Studies

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 3-28

  Cox, Robert W ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0033479547     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210599000042     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes. A History of the World, 1914-1991 (New York: Pantheon, 1994) p. 459.
2. References in the text to the Prison Notebooks are taken from Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971), subsequently referred to as PN.
3. See, e.g., Benedetto Croce, Politics and Morals (New York: Philosophical Library, 1945) pp. 22-32, where he described the state as 'the incarnation of the human ethos'.
4. Carl Becker, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth Century Philosophers (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1932).
5. Alexis de Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1951).
6. There is a current of 'political Marxism' expressed by Ellen Meiskins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism. Renewing Historical Materialism (Cambridge University Press, 1995), which is very critical of the hopes of some people on the Left that civil society will play an emancipatory role. In her view, civil society retains its original identity with the bourgeois order. This originated with the conceptual distinction made in bourgeois ideology between politics and economics, creating the illusion that economics, the realm of civil society, was not an arena of politics, that is to say, of power relations. This mystification of private power has made possible the acceptance and reproduction of the bourgeois social order. She writes: 'It is certainly true that in capitalist society, with its separation of "political" and "economic" spheres, or the state and civil society, coercive public power is centralized and concentrated to a greater degree than ever before, but this simply means that one of the principal functions of "public" coercion by the state is to sustain "private" power in civil society.' (p. 255) Her charge against the current appeal to civil society by the 'new social movements' and postmodernism is that it occludes the reality of class domination and fragments the opposition to the bourgeois order into a variety of distinct struggles for 'identity', thereby perpetuating capitalist domination. Justin Rosenberg, The Empire of Civil Society. A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Relations (London: Verso, 1994) transposes Ellen Wood's reasoning to international relations, arguing that the classical Westphalian concept of state sovereignty and the balance of power mystify the reality of power in the capitalist world order. The 'public' sphere of the state system is paralleled by the 'private' sphere of the global economy; and the state system functions to sustain 'private' power in the latter, the 'empire of civil society'. 'Political Marxism' provides a cogent argument with regard to the 'top-down' meaning of civil society, and in its critique of a postmodernism that indiscriminate deference to identities implies a fragmentation and therefore weakening of opposition to the dominant order. The argument is more questionable in its apparent rejection of the Gramscian 'war of position' as a counterhegemonic strategy for the conquest of civil society and for the transformation of civil society in an emancipatory direction. Two key points in the 'political Marxist' thesis that bear reexamination are: (1) the positing of capitalism as a monolithic 'totalizing' force which excludes the possibility of historicizing capitalism so as to perceive that it is subject to historical change and can take different forms: and (2) the freezing of the concept of 'class' in a 19th and early 20th century form with a two class model juxtaposing bourgeoisie and proletariat which obscures the ways in which changes in production have restructured social relations, especially during recent decades. Both points are discussed below.
7. There is a current of 'political Marxism' expressed by Ellen Meiskins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism. Renewing Historical Materialism (Cambridge University Press, 1995), which is very critical of the hopes of some people on the Left that civil society will play an emancipatory role. In her view, civil society retains its original identity with the bourgeois order. This originated with the conceptual distinction made in bourgeois ideology between politics and economics, creating the illusion that economics, the realm of civil society, was not an arena of politics, that is to say, of power relations. This mystification of private power has made possible the acceptance and reproduction of the bourgeois social order. She writes: 'It is certainly true that in capitalist society, with its separation of "political" and "economic" spheres, or the state and civil society, coercive public power is centralized and concentrated to a greater degree than ever before, but this simply means that one of the principal functions of "public" coercion by the state is to sustain "private" power in civil society.' (p. 255) Her charge against the current appeal to civil society by the 'new social movements' and postmodernism is that it occludes the reality of class domination and fragments the opposition to the bourgeois order into a variety of distinct struggles for 'identity', thereby perpetuating capitalist domination. Justin Rosenberg, The Empire of Civil Society. A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Relations (London: Verso, 1994) transposes Ellen Wood's reasoning to international relations, arguing that the classical Westphalian concept of state sovereignty and the balance of power mystify the reality of power in the capitalist world order. The 'public' sphere of the state system is paralleled by the 'private' sphere of the global economy; and the state system functions to sustain 'private' power in the latter, the 'empire of civil society'. 'Political Marxism' provides a cogent argument with regard to the 'top-down' meaning of civil society, and in its critique of a postmodernism that indiscriminate deference to identities implies a fragmentation and therefore weakening of opposition to the dominant order. The argument is more questionable in its apparent rejection of the Gramscian 'war of position' as a counterhegemonic strategy for the conquest of civil society and for the transformation of civil society in an emancipatory direction. Two key points in the 'political Marxist' thesis that bear reexamination are: (1) the positing of capitalism as a monolithic 'totalizing' force which excludes the possibility of historicizing capitalism so as to perceive that it is subject to historical change and can take different forms: and (2) the freezing of the concept of 'class' in a 19th and early 20th century form with a two class model juxtaposing bourgeoisie and proletariat which obscures the ways in which changes in production have restructured social relations, especially during recent decades. Both points are discussed below.
8. Norberto Bobbio, 'Gramsci and the concept of civil society', in John Keane (ed.), Civil Society and the State. New European Perspectives (London and New York: Verso, 1988). The essay was originally published in Gramsci e la cultura contemporarea: Atti del Convengno Internazionale di Studi Gramsciani, Rome 1968.
9. Norberto Bobbio, 'Gramsci and the concept of civil society', in John Keane (ed.), Civil Society and the State. New European Perspectives (London and New York: Verso, 1988). The essay was originally published in Gramsci e la cultura contemporarea: Atti del Convengno Internazionale di Studi Gramsciani, Rome 1968.
10. Adam Przeworski, 'Democratic socialism in Poland?', Studies in Political Economy 5, spring 1981, pp. 29-54, esp. pp. 37-41.
11. I take the term 'civic state' from Yoshikazu Sakamoto, in personal correspondence. See also his article 'Civil society and democratic world order' in Stephen Gill and James H. Mittelman (eds), Innovation and Transformation in International Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) pp. 207-219.
12. See, e.g., David Held, Democracy and the Global Order. From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). Michael G. Schechter, 'Globalization and civil society', paper presented to the annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), San Jose, Costa Rica, June 1997, contains a critical review of literature on 'global civil society'. Even the most optimistic writers regard 'global civic society' in the emancipatory sense as something to be achieved, not as something that already exists. In the 'top-down' hegemonic sense, by contrast, Rosenberg (see footnote 7 above) refers to the 'empire of civil society' as control by global capitalism. In the same sense, but without the Marxist theoretical framework, Susan Strange has written about a 'non-territorial empire' (in 'Toward a theory of transnational empire', E.-O. Czempiel and James N. Rosenau (eds), Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges. Approaches to World Politics for the 1990s, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989).
13. See, e.g., David Held, Democracy and the Global Order. From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). Michael G. Schechter, 'Globalization and civil society', paper presented to the annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), San Jose, Costa Rica, June 1997, contains a critical review of literature on 'global civil society'. Even the most optimistic writers regard 'global civic society' in the emancipatory sense as something to be achieved, not as something that already exists. In the 'top-down' hegemonic sense, by contrast, Rosenberg (see footnote 7 above) refers to the 'empire of civil society' as control by global capitalism. In the same sense, but without the Marxist theoretical framework, Susan Strange has written about a 'non-territorial empire' (in 'Toward a theory of transnational empire', E.-O. Czempiel and James N. Rosenau (eds), Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges. Approaches to World Politics for the 1990s, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989).
14. See, e.g., David Held, Democracy and the Global Order. From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). Michael G. Schechter, 'Globalization and civil society', paper presented to the annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), San Jose, Costa Rica, June 1997, contains a critical review of literature on 'global civil society'. Even the most optimistic writers regard 'global civic society' in the emancipatory sense as something to be achieved, not as something that already exists. In the 'top-down' hegemonic sense, by contrast, Rosenberg (see footnote 7 above) refers to the 'empire of civil society' as control by global capitalism. In the same sense, but without the Marxist theoretical framework, Susan Strange has written about a 'non-territorial empire' (in 'Toward a theory of transnational empire', E.-O. Czempiel and James N. Rosenau (eds), Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges. Approaches to World Politics for the 1990s, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989).
15. Laura Macdonald, Supporting Civil Society. The Political Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997) gives a useful classification of 'ideal types' of NGOs according to their consequences for maintenance or transformation of social and political order. She suggests three types: neo-conservative, liberal-pluralist, and post-Marxist (or Gramscian) (pp. 15-23). With regard to opposition between dominant and subordinate groups within the labour movement, see Robert W. Cox, 'Labor and hegemony' and 'Labor and hegemony: a reply' in Cox with Timothy J. Sinclair, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
16. Laura Macdonald, Supporting Civil Society. The Political Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Central America (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997) gives a useful classification of 'ideal types' of NGOs according to their consequences for maintenance or transformation of social and political order. She suggests three types: neo-conservative, liberal-pluralist, and post-Marxist (or Gramscian) (pp. 15-23). With regard to opposition between dominant and subordinate groups within the labour movement, see Robert W. Cox, 'Labor and hegemony' and 'Labor and hegemony: a reply' in Cox with Timothy J. Sinclair, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
17. Bernadette Madeuf and Charles-Albert Michalet, 'A new approach to international economics' International Social Science Journal 30: 2 (1978): pp. 253-83, made the distinction between the international economy (understood as flows of goods, payments, and investments across frontiers) and an emerging form of economy in which production was being organized on an integrated basis among entities located in a number of countries. In the English translation of their article, which was written in French, the emerging economy was called the 'world economy', which accords with the French term applied to the process generating it, mondialisation. The term 'global economy' is commonly used now in English to designate the organization of production and finance on a world scale and 'globalization' as the process generating it. Of course, much of the world's economic activity still goes on outside this global economy, albeit increasingly constrained by and subordinated to the global economy. I reserve the term 'world economy' for the totality of economic activities of which the global economy is the dominant part. The impact of the globalization process on power relations among social forces and states, and in the formation of institutions designed to entrench the global economy or in stimulating resistance to it is the realm of 'global political economy'.
18. See, for example, Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society. A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977) esp. pp. 254-5; also Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Bertrand Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts, Le retournement du monde. Sociologie de la scène internationale (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, 1992). On this theme of the increasing complexity of world politics and the obsolescence of conventional boundaries and distinctions, see also James N. Rosenau, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier. Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
19. See, for example, Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society. A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977) esp. pp. 254-5; also Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Bertrand Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts, Le retournement du monde. Sociologie de la scène internationale (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, 1992). On this theme of the increasing complexity of world politics and the obsolescence of conventional boundaries and distinctions, see also James N. Rosenau, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier. Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
20. See, for example, Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society. A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977) esp. pp. 254-5; also Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Bertrand Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts, Le retournement du monde. Sociologie de la scène internationale (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, 1992). On this theme of the increasing complexity of world politics and the obsolescence of conventional boundaries and distinctions, see also James N. Rosenau, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier. Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
21. See, for example, Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society. A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977) esp. pp. 254-5; also Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Bertrand Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts, Le retournement du monde. Sociologie de la scène internationale (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, 1992). On this theme of the increasing complexity of world politics and the obsolescence of conventional boundaries and distinctions, see also James N. Rosenau, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier. Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
22. See Leo Panitch, 'Rethinking the role of the state', in James H. Mittelman (ed.) Globalization: Critical Reflections (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996).
23. Robert W. Cox, 'Production and security', in Cox with Timothy J. Sinclair, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 276-95.
24. Ignacio Ramonet, 'Néofascisme', Le Monde diplomatique, April 1998.
25. Mark Rupert, 'Globalisation and contested common sense in the United States', in Stephen Gill and James H. Mittelman (eds), Innovation and Transformation in International Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1997). The most extreme manifestation of this tendency is withdrawal from American political society with the formation of private militias and perpetration of terrorist acts like the Oklahoma City bombing.
26. Yumiko Iida, 'Virtual kingdom and dreams of apocalypse: contemporary Japan mirrored in Aum Shinrikyo', paper presented at the 10th annual conference of the Japan Studies Association of Canada, Toronto, October 1997.
27. The most obvious case today is the role of mafias in the Russian economy; but an anecdotal instance relates to Argentina where deregulation has led to increased polarization of rich and poor and former members of the naval intelligence service, notorious torturers during the 'dirty war', have been reemployed by private corporations as 'security' staff. 'Argentine killers find new line of work' by Amaranta Wright, The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 28 February 1997.
28. Michel Albert, Capitalisme contre capitalisme (Paris: Seuil, 1991).
29. See Shigeto Tsuru, Japan's Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982); and James Fallows, Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System (New York: Pantheon, 1994).
30. See Shigeto Tsuru, Japan's Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982); and James Fallows, Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System (New York: Pantheon, 1994).
31. See Shigeto Tsuru, Japan's Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982); and James Fallows, Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System (New York: Pantheon, 1994).
32. Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 'The international context of the occupation of Japan', in Robert E. Ward and Yoshikazu Sakamoto (eds), Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987); also Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 'Fifty Years of the Two Japans', typescript, 1995.
33. Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 'The international context of the occupation of Japan', in Robert E. Ward and Yoshikazu Sakamoto (eds), Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987); also Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 'Fifty Years of the Two Japans', typescript, 1995.
34. Professor Tamotsu Aoki, a cultural anthropologist, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, at a symposium convened jointly by the International House of Japan and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Tokyo, September 26, 1996.
35. Yoshikazu Sakamoto, Professor emeritus of International Relations, Tokyo University and Young-Ho Kim, Professor at Kyungpook National University, South Korea, at a symposium on Prospects for Civil Society in Asia, International House of Japan, Tokyo, September 24, 1996.
36. The 'Asianization' idea is presented in Yoichi Funabashi, The Asianization of Asia', Foreign Affairs 72: 5 (1993). The notion of a regional civil society is discussed in Mitchell Bernard, 'Regions in the global political economy: beyond the local-global divide in the formation of the eastern Asian region', New Political Economy 1: 3 (November 1996). For a critical assessment, see Yumiko Iida, 'Fleeing the West, making Asia home: transpositions of otherness in Japanese pan-Asianism, 1905-1930', Alternatives 22 (1997), pp. 409-432.
37. The 'Asianization' idea is presented in Yoichi Funabashi, The Asianization of Asia', Foreign Affairs 72: 5 (1993). The notion of a regional civil society is discussed in Mitchell Bernard, 'Regions in the global political economy: beyond the local-global divide in the formation of the eastern Asian region', New Political Economy 1: 3 (November 1996). For a critical assessment, see Yumiko Iida, 'Fleeing the West, making Asia home: transpositions of otherness in Japanese pan-Asianism, 1905-1930', Alternatives 22 (1997), pp. 409-432.
38. The 'Asianization' idea is presented in Yoichi Funabashi, The Asianization of Asia', Foreign Affairs 72: 5 (1993). The notion of a regional civil society is discussed in Mitchell Bernard, 'Regions in the global political economy: beyond the local-global divide in the formation of the eastern Asian region', New Political Economy 1: 3 (November 1996). For a critical assessment, see Yumiko Iida, 'Fleeing the West, making Asia home: transpositions of otherness in Japanese pan-Asianism, 1905-1930', Alternatives 22 (1997), pp. 409-432.
39. A series of articles by Philippe Pons in Le Monde, 3 January, 15 January, and 16 January, 1997; and by Laurent Carroué, Le Monde diplomatique, February 1997.
40. A series of articles by Philippe Pons in Le Monde, 3 January, 15 January, and 16 January, 1997; and by Laurent Carroué, Le Monde diplomatique, February 1997.
41. See various writings of János Kornai, including Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980; and 'Dilemmas of a socialist economy', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 4: 2 (1980); also Wlodzimierz Brus and Tadeus Kowalik, 'Socialism and development', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7 (1983); and Robert W. Cox, '"Real socialism" in historical perspective' in Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register 1991 (London: Merlin Press, 1991).
42. See various writings of János Kornai, including Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980; and 'Dilemmas of a socialist economy', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 4: 2 (1980); also Wlodzimierz Brus and Tadeus Kowalik, 'Socialism and development', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7 (1983); and Robert W. Cox, '"Real socialism" in historical perspective' in Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register 1991 (London: Merlin Press, 1991).
43. See various writings of János Kornai, including Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980; and 'Dilemmas of a socialist economy', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 4: 2 (1980); also Wlodzimierz Brus and Tadeus Kowalik, 'Socialism and development', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7 (1983); and Robert W. Cox, '"Real socialism" in historical perspective' in Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register 1991 (London: Merlin Press, 1991).
44. See various writings of János Kornai, including Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980; and 'Dilemmas of a socialist economy', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 4: 2 (1980); also Wlodzimierz Brus and Tadeus Kowalik, 'Socialism and development', Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7 (1983); and Robert W. Cox, '"Real socialism" in historical perspective' in Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register 1991 (London: Merlin Press, 1991).
45. László Andor, 'Economic transformation and political stability in East Central Europe', Security Dialogue, 27: 2 (June 1996).
46. See William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy. Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) which contains case studies of the Philippines, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, South Africa, and the former Soviet bloc; also William I. Robinson, 'Globalization, the world system, and 'democracy promotion' in US foreign policy', Theory and Society, 25 (1996), pp. 615-65.
47. See William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy. Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) which contains case studies of the Philippines, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, South Africa, and the former Soviet bloc; also William I. Robinson, 'Globalization, the world system, and 'democracy promotion' in US foreign policy', Theory and Society, 25 (1996), pp. 615-65.
48. Judith Adler Hellman, 'The riddle of new social movements: who they are and what they do', in Sandor Halebsky and Richard L. Harris (eds), Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995).
49. Laura Macdonald, Supporting Civil Society, (see footnote 12 above).
50. Maurice Najman, 'Le grand virage des zapatistes' in Le Monde diplomatique, January 1997. A sketch of the world view of the Zapatistas is to be found in Sous-commandant Marcos, 'La 4e guerre mondiale a commencé', Le Monde diplomatique, August 1997.
51. Maurice Najman, 'Le grand virage des zapatistes' in Le Monde diplomatique, January 1997. A sketch of the world view of the Zapatistas is to be found in Sous-commandant Marcos, 'La 4e guerre mondiale a commencé', Le Monde diplomatique, August 1997.
52. Amilcar Cabrai was a particularly articulate leader who expounded in theory and practice the position that popular participation in revolutionary action and cultural change were essential for African peoples to raise themselves out of imperialist domination. Although the momentum of his movement stalled, following Cabral's assassination by agents of Portuguese colonialism, the historian Basil Davidson thinks that Cabral's success in mobilizing Africans to make their own history has left its impact and example to inspire a renewed movement. See Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa. History, Culture, Politics (New York: Random House, 1994, esp. pp. 217-43); and Unity and Struggle. Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabrai (New York and London: Monthly Review, 1979). Cabral's speeches and writing have striking similarity to Gramsci's thought.
53. Amilcar Cabrai was a particularly articulate leader who expounded in theory and practice the position that popular participation in revolutionary action and cultural change were essential for African peoples to raise themselves out of imperialist domination. Although the momentum of his movement stalled, following Cabral's assassination by agents of Portuguese colonialism, the historian Basil Davidson thinks that Cabral's success in mobilizing Africans to make their own history has left its impact and example to inspire a renewed movement. See Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa. History, Culture, Politics (New York: Random House, 1994, esp. pp. 217-43); and Unity and Struggle. Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabrai (New York and London: Monthly Review, 1979). Cabral's speeches and writing have striking similarity to Gramsci's thought.
54. Fantu Cheru, The Silent Revolution in Africa: Debt, Development and Democracy (Harare and London: Zed/Anvil Press, 1989). Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa (see footnote 34 above) has also referred to this phenomenon: 'One finds [in Africa] the striving of countless individuals and collectives towards new types of self-organization - perhaps one should say self-defense - aimed in one way or another at operating outside the bureaucratic centralism of the neocolonial state' (p. 290).
55. Fantu Cheru, The Silent Revolution in Africa: Debt, Development and Democracy (Harare and London: Zed/Anvil Press, 1989). Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa (see footnote 34 above) has also referred to this phenomenon: 'One finds [in Africa] the striving of countless individuals and collectives towards new types of self-organization - perhaps one should say self-defense - aimed in one way or another at operating outside the bureaucratic centralism of the neocolonial state' (p. 290).
56. Basil Davidson, 'Africa: the politics of failure', Socialist Register 1992 edited by Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (London: Merlin Press, 1992), envisaged the possibility that more participatory politics in Africa might develop within the framework of market economics, but concluded rather pessimistically: 'How far the developed world of multinational concentrations of power will bring itself to tolerate this devolutionary politics of participation, and its democratic implications, is [a] question to which, at present, we do not have an answer' (p. 225). The fall of the Mobutu regime in Zaire and its replacement by the Democratic Republic of the Congo under Laurent-Désiré Kabila did not really test Davidson's proposition. Kabila's victory was achieved by military means with considerable support from Ugandan and Rwandan military forces. The struggle seemed to take place over the heads of the vast majority of Zaire's population which has evolved techniques of survival in communities that have avoided involvement with the state and the formal economy. Although these elements of autonomous civil society do exist, they have not yet been able to evolve a real politics of participation that could be the foundation for a new state. See e.g. Colette Braeckman, 'Comment le Zaïre fut libéré' Le Monde diplomatique, July 1997. In other works, Davidson seems more optimistic about the long range potential for the development of civil society and 'the elaboration of a culture capable of drawing the civilization of the Africans out of the fetters into which it has fallen, and of giving that civilization, in its multitudinous aspects and varieties, a life and meaning appropriate to its present tasks and destiny.' (Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa, pp. 261-2 (see footnote 34 above)).
57. Basil Davidson, 'Africa: the politics of failure', Socialist Register 1992 edited by Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (London: Merlin Press, 1992), envisaged the possibility that more participatory politics in Africa might develop within the framework of market economics, but concluded rather pessimistically: 'How far the developed world of multinational concentrations of power will bring itself to tolerate this devolutionary politics of participation, and its democratic implications, is [a] question to which, at present, we do not have an answer' (p. 225). The fall of the Mobutu regime in Zaire and its replacement by the Democratic Republic of the Congo under Laurent-Désiré Kabila did not really test Davidson's proposition. Kabila's victory was achieved by military means with considerable support from Ugandan and Rwandan military forces. The struggle seemed to take place over the heads of the vast majority of Zaire's population which has evolved techniques of survival in communities that have avoided involvement with the state and the formal economy. Although these elements of autonomous civil society do exist, they have not yet been able to evolve a real politics of participation that could be the foundation for a new state. See e.g. Colette Braeckman, 'Comment le Zaïre fut libéré' Le Monde diplomatique, July 1997. In other works, Davidson seems more optimistic about the long range potential for the development of civil society and 'the elaboration of a culture capable of drawing the civilization of the Africans out of the fetters into which it has fallen, and of giving that civilization, in its multitudinous aspects and varieties, a life and meaning appropriate to its present tasks and destiny.' (Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa, pp. 261-2 (see footnote 34 above)).
58. Basil Davidson, 'Africa: the politics of failure', Socialist Register 1992 edited by Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch (London: Merlin Press, 1992), envisaged the possibility that more participatory politics in Africa might develop within the framework of market economics, but concluded rather pessimistically: 'How far the developed world of multinational concentrations of power will bring itself to tolerate this devolutionary politics of participation, and its democratic implications, is [a] question to which, at present, we do not have an answer' (p. 225). The fall of the Mobutu regime in Zaire and its replacement by the Democratic Republic of the Congo under Laurent-Désiré Kabila did not really test Davidson's proposition. Kabila's victory was achieved by military means with considerable support from Ugandan and Rwandan military forces. The struggle seemed to take place over the heads of the vast majority of Zaire's population which has evolved techniques of survival in communities that have avoided involvement with the state and the formal economy. Although these elements of autonomous civil society do exist, they have not yet been able to evolve a real politics of participation that could be the foundation for a new state. See e.g. Colette Braeckman, 'Comment le Zaïre fut libéré' Le Monde diplomatique, July 1997. In other works, Davidson seems more optimistic about the long range potential for the development of civil society and 'the elaboration of a culture capable of drawing the civilization of the Africans out of the fetters into which it has fallen, and of giving that civilization, in its multitudinous aspects and varieties, a life and meaning appropriate to its present tasks and destiny.' (Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa, pp. 261-2 (see footnote 34 above)).
59. The American sociologist Robert D. Putnam has suggested that civil society in the United States has lost much of the spirit of association once noted by de Tocqueville as its salient characteristic. He sees this as being replaced by non-participation in group activities and a privatizing or individualizing of leisure time. He calls this a decline of 'social capital' which refers to networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. See Putnam, 'Bowling alone: America's declining social capital', Journal of Democracy, 6: 1 (January 1995). The same author has made a study about social capital in Italy: Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
60. The American sociologist Robert D. Putnam has suggested that civil society in the United States has lost much of the spirit of association once noted by de Tocqueville as its salient characteristic. He sees this as being replaced by non-participation in group activities and a privatizing or individualizing of leisure time. He calls this a decline of 'social capital' which refers to networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. See Putnam, 'Bowling alone: America's declining social capital', Journal of Democracy, 6: 1 (January 1995). The same author has made a study about social capital in Italy: Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
61. See, for example, the brilliant essay by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, La fin de la démocratie (Paris: Flammarion, 1993).