DOES GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY EXIST?
Over the past ten years, scholars have vigorously debated whether the fact that increasing numbers of people are associating with each other across national bor-
ders constitutes a"global civil society".It is certainly true that people are organizing to address issues that concern them in multiple political arenas ---local, national,and international.But it is not clear that cross-border activism represents a genuine
sense of global community,a global civic culture,or the emergence of global
the global arena.Skeptics argue that civil society can only exist in relation to a state;that new global social movements are predominantly nationally oriented;that those
citizen formations that do exist between nation states are insufficiently"global" in
their character and focus;and that global civil society is a Western construct (Tarrow
2005; Anheier 2003).Many intergovernmental organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OBCD) and the International
Monetar Fund (IMF) equate international nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) with global eivil society, which further confuses the conceptual terrain.
Civil society has been defined in at least three ways:as the forms of associational life,such as NGOs,labour unions,social movements,and churches(Edwards 2009;Salamon 2004);as the norms of the good society,defined by values such as cooeperation,nonviolence and tolerance (Keane 2003);and as arena for public deliberation,consisting of spaces that are relatively autonomous from both states and markets(Scholte 2000).The three definitions are also useful in considering the global arena.
Global civil society includes multiple forms of association such as international
networks,social movements,and campaigns;international federations and confed-
erations of churches, professional, and business associations;cros-border
membership-based organizations of the poor;and nongovernmental organizations
that are oriented towards the global arena.Unfortunately there is no research that
provides a reliable overview of the relative scale and density of these different forms
of association (Anheier aoo3, 2007).Only international NGOs have been studied in
any depth (Union of International Associations 2010) and there is active debate
within academia on whether other kinds of cross-border associations actually exist,
especially global social movements (Tarrow 2005;Smith 2008).But it is known that
over 60,000 NGOs and civic networks already operate on the international stage,9o
percent of which have been formed since 1970 (Edwards 2009, 23).
Normative definitions concentrate on the meaning of the "civil" as a positive
moral force in international affairs, and as a mechanism through which new global
norms are developed around universal human rights, international cooperation on
global problems like climate change and poverty, and the peaceful resolution of
national differences in the global arena.In this sense, global civil society is inter-
preted as a mechanism for the development of social compacts or contracts across
national borders that solidify principled international action on common themes
and priorities (Keane 2003; Kaldor 2003).Clearly,however, the forms of global civil
society do not convey or carry a standard set of norms. As Bob (2005) and others
have pointed out, global ivil society is home to conserative and progressive interests, religious and secular groups, violent and nonviolent social action.
This is why a global public sphere or set of spheres is so important, providing
the spaces in which different visions of globalization and conflicting global norms
can be argued out,and in the best manifestations of th process--- moving towards an increasing cross-border consensus.Such spaces include open-access websites like
Wikipedia and openDemocracy, new events and networks such as the World
Economic Forum and the World Social Forum, global festivals organized by communities of practice to celebrate their identities and achievements such as the Fez
Festival of Sacred Music,and international conferences which bring different interest groups together.Since the creation of the United Nations,civic associations have
organized across national boundaries around issues of peace,social justice,and the
environment.The World Federalist Movement,for example,argued for a global
government as early as 1937 to secure international peace,and began to emphasize
building democracy on a global scale ten years later.Environmental organizations
have organized globally to address the need for a common policy framework to
preserve and protect natural resources since the early 1960s. And in the 9905, the
United Nations organized a series of global summits to address problems such as
environmental degradation and discrimination, which acted as a catalyst for global
civil society development (Pianta 2005).
Combining elements from each of these three definitions, Anheier (2007) concludes that global civil society is the sphere of ideas, values, institutions, organizations, networks, and individuals that are based upon civility; are located between
the family the state, and the market; and operate beyond the confines of national
societies, polities, and econonmies.This definition is useful in defining the universe
of actors that is concerned with affecting power and politics in the global political
arena,but has a normative frame that limits its applicability.Nevertheless,while
these norms may be contested,it is clear that global civil society is slowily emerging
over time in all three of these guises, and will grow stronger as they continue to
intertwine.
