There is no country in the world today without political discontent between the government and the civil society. From Moscow to East St. Louis, from Mexico City to Cairo, despair about public institutions is deepening.
It is essential to understand what constitutes civil society in order to understand their contribution to the political development. It constitutes various organizations and institutions that are independent of the government but can exert influence on it. It includes non-profit organizations, labor and student unions, business federations and institutes like press, think tanks.
The evolution of civil societies can be traced back in history.
In Italy, they started as communes which were not democratic but absorption of nobility to form new social elite class.
However, there extent of participation in political institutions was very high. In fact, Daniel Waley called these as paradise of committee man. These communes took active participation in deliberations.
As human interactions increased, guilds of craftsmen and traders evolved. The oldest guild statute is that of Verona, dating from 1303. Soon, these groups started pressing for broader political reforms in Italy. These reforms asked for inclusion and equality in the political participation. It also resulted in the expansion of commerce due to expanded trade networks.
The guilds gradually professionalized.
Not just in Italy, but in 1973, Thai civil society made its impact felt, when students overthrew a military led government. Since then, civil society has played a major role in Thailand’s evolving democracy .
Their evolution, growth and presence around the world illustrates the importance of civil society. It is necessary for an effective democracy for many reasons.
Civil society aims to limit and control the power of the state by watching how the officials use it. Thereby, checking the abuse of power.
Many Non-Profit Organizations and Political organizations are working to mobilize the marginalized populations. They are advocating for these populations to access economic, civic and political life. They are involved as a constructive partner and advocate for democracy and human rights training. This ensures that it is not only the elite that have their voices heard but also the oppressed groups.
Like in many countries, in India, the civil society is working to strengthen democracy to provide solidarity that cut across old forms of tribal, linguistic, religious, and other identity ties.
When elections are framed around issues rather than personalities, like it is happening in countries like India, Indonesia, civil society plays an important role to break these echo chambers. However, there are instances where the civil society has not acted very responsibly.
For example, in India, in the last election of Lok Sabha , much of the election campaign of the ruling party revolved around its election candidate and less around the election manifesto. With the tagline ‘Ab Ki Baar Modi Sarkar’ (which means This time it is Modi’s rule), the elections were focused on a persona rather than the political party he represents or the election manifesto. ‘Chappan Inch ki Chathi’ is symbolic that you need a big chest to instill fear in enemy. The idiom of political machoism of Modi, has nothing to do with ideas of change and development in the country. It ascertains that Modi is the epitome of bravery.
It is appalling to see that many media houses took active part in the personality propaganda. Not many media houses acted independently and those who did, were attacked verbally and sometimes physically. This caused in self-censorship of media.
Initially, citizens of India had very few opportunities to provide their inputs into public decisions. However, the efforts of press and non-profit organizations resulted in measures to facilitate transparent government databases, e governance and Internet based platforms. Projects like E-Seva in Andhra Pradesh , Friends in Kerala , Lokvani in Uttar Pradesh are designed to provide ‘Government to Citizen’ services.
Freedom of information, transparent rules and procedures, rights of assembly and expression, and a free media are crucial to ensure competition of ideas and debate the power of government. All these are salient features of civil society.
A free civil society is expected to uphold society’s political freedom. It promotes debate and dialogue. No nation can hope to develop democratically without the free expression, publication and distribution of ideas and opinions. Democracies can only function sustainably when people are well informed, are able to access and share information freely and can debate ideas.
Civil society must be independent, voluntary, law-abiding, tolerant and pluralistic to build and maintain democracy.
A democratic state cannot be stable unless it is effective and legitimate, with the respect and support of its citizens. Governments collapse when its people stop bringing grievances to the state, since it is an indicator that the state is no longer regarded as legitimate. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is imperative for a successful democracy to have accountability, responsive government and most importantly, protection of human rights.
And a civil society can ensure this.