Funding Virtue: Civil Society Aid and Democracy Promotion

352 Pages·2000·2.91 MB·English

by  Marina Ottaway

Funding Virtue
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Funding Virtue
Civil Society Aid and
Democracy Promotion
Marina Ottaway
Thomas Carothers
Editors
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE
Washington, D.C.
© 2000 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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Carnegie Endowment.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Funding virtue : civil society aid and democracy promotion /
Marina Ottaway, Thomas Carothers, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87003-181-3 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87003-178-3 (pbk. : alk.
paper)
1. Civil society. 2. Democratization. 3. Economic assistance. I.
Ottaway, Marina, 1943- . II. Carothers, Thomas, 1956- .
JC337 .F85 2000
327.1’11—dc21
00-010804
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1 1st Printing 2000
Contents
Foreword, Jessica T. Mathews vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction
The Burgeoning World of Civil Society Aid 3
Thomas Carothers and Marina Ottaway
Part One: Middle East
1. Weak Democracy and Civil Society Promotion:
The Cases of Egypt and Palestine 21
Imco Brouwer
2. A Clash of Values: U.S. Civil Society Aid and
Islam in Egypt 49
Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid
Part Two: Africa
3. Social Movements, Professionalization of Reform,
and Democracy in Africa 77
Marina Ottaway
4. Voicing the Voiceless: Foreign Political Aid to
Civil Society in South Africa 105
Christopher Landsberg
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vi | CONTENTS
Part Three: Asia
5. Democracy as Development: A Case for Civil Society
Assistance in Asia 135
Stephen J. Golub
6. New Visions and Strong Actions: Civil Society
in the Philippines 159
Mary Racelis
Part Four: Eastern Europe
7. Lofty Goals, Modest Results: Assisting Civil Society
in Eastern Europe 191
Kevin F. F. Quigley
8. Civil Society in Romania: From Donor Supply to
Citizen Demand 217
Dan Petrescu
Part Five: Latin America
9. Latin American Democratization: The Civil
Society Puzzle 243
Michael Shifter
10. Civil Society Aid in Peru: Reflections from
Experience 269
Carlos Basombrío
Part Six: Conclusion
11. Toward Civil Society Realism 293
Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers
Bibliography 311
Index 321
Contributors 337
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 340
Foreword
TODAY’S RAPIDLY EXPANDING ROLE of civil society in political, eco-
nomic, and social life, both within and across borders, commands atten-
tion in many quarters. Some people invest great hopes in civil society,
holding it out as a unique repository of values, virtue, and voluntarism.
Others worry about the effects of proliferating nongovernmental orga-
nizations, arguing that governments are still the only legitimate source
of order and authority and that too much of a good thing on the side of
citizen empowerment could turn out to be a source of domestic political
gridlock and international impotence.
Debate and discussion over civil society are especially prevalent in
the domain of democratization. After the heroic dissidents of Eastern
Europe adopted the mantle of civil society in the 1980s, the concept sud-
denly caught on as a key element in the “Third Wave” of democracy that
was spreading around the world in those years. Assistance programs
aimed at fostering civil society became a major part of the democracy
promotion efforts of Western aid agencies, private foundations, and in-
ternational nongovernmental organizations. Under the rubric of such
assistance, thousands of nongovernmental organizations in the devel-
oping world and the post-communist societies of Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union now receive training, advice, and financial sup-
port.
Knowing how much a vibrant civil society has contributed to America
throughout its history, it is hard not to believe that promoting civil soci-
ety abroad is a worthwhile endeavor. At the same time, it is natural to
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viii | FOREWORD
ask how much the aid in this field is actually accomplishing. This timely
book addresses precisely that question. The book’s editors, two leading
experts in democracy promotion, have assembled a talented group of
authors, each of whom has had hands-on practical experience with civil
society aid at either the giving or receiving end. The editors asked them
to address a challenging set of questions: What conceptions of civil soci-
ety do aid providers employ, and how do these conceptions relate to
local realities in the recipient countries? Where do the programs make a
difference, and where do they fall short? How can civil society aid be
improved? The result is an unusually frank collection of essays, with
case studies from Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and East-
ern Europe, that goes a long way to answering basic questions about
this still rapidly growing area of international assistance.
The diversity of the authors leads to contending perspectives that
enrich the book. At the same time, several common conclusions stand
out. Most generally, the authors agree that civil society development is a
valuable, even essential area of focus for Western public and private aid.
They also raise significant questions about the limited focus of most civil
society aid, in particular the concentration of aid to Westernized non-
governmental organizations engaged in public interest advocacy, and
they urge donors to cast a wider net. They also highlight the many sticky
political choices inherent in civil society aid and pop the bubble of the
idea that civil society development is somehow a safely apolitical do-
main. Finally, they find many shortcomings in the day-to-day methods
of implementation of such aid and usefully point to some remedies.
Civil society aid clearly is a field with a future. This book helps chart
the path for that future and will, I believe, be an important part of it. I
am proud that the Carnegie Endowment has undertaken this research
project and am delighted to offer you the results.
JESSICA T. MATHEWS
President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Acknowledgments
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK Michael Foley for his insightful com-
ments on a draft of the manuscript and Will Barndt for his research help
throughout. Dianna Christenson handled the preparation of the manu-
script with consistent good cheer and competence. Alice Phillips and
Lynn Whittaker contributed much in editing and copyediting. Trish
Reynolds and Sherry Pettie of the Carnegie Endowment publications
department smoothly guided the process of going from manuscript to
book. We are greatly indebted to the Ford Foundation, especially Mahnaz
Ispahani, for financial support that made the whole project possible.
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