Enhancing Civil Society : Democracy

The Basic Idea

Every field has its buzzwords, and every field has its "zeitgeist" (spirit of the times) or fads. Dr. Halamandaris from BU's Education Faculty addressed this issue from the educational sector in an interesting way a few years ago. He said that these fresh ways of seeing the same discipline are needed to bring periodic freshness to a field which is by its very definition limited in scope and action. His approach seemed to be one of enjoying each new perspective as it came along but not of getting so swept up in it, that one loses his/her perspective. He saw academic research as a counterbalance to zeitgeist, and that both of these realities fed each other as well.

Civil society, or the sector of life that doesn't come directly under the heading of government or the private/corporate side of life, is sometimes called the "third sector". It's a bit like the term "schizophrenia" and "nervous breakdown", they have meaning, but in common parlance they also serve as catch-all terms for just about any sort of undefined reality.

The term "social capital" is something of a catchall expression as well. Roughly it refers to the undefined ingredients which make life work, beyond those which regulate life (government) and those required to make a company work (capital etc). It reminds me of a study on productivity which frankly admitted that of all the factors which were known to be critical in the increase in productivity, they accounted for only about half of the increase. The other half of causative factors simply were not known.

The ancient story of creation in the Hebrew scriptures contains an interesting observation about human life. The author observes that there are two perspectives in life which are possible. One is that God created all life and maintains a current interest in it, offering to provide life to humans in a manner in keeping with the principles in which he set life up ("eating from the tree of life"). Th other perspective is that anything except God is at the center of the universe, and it is up to us to figure life out for ourselves and live life simply on the amount of energy he has provided to the world in the delegated sense (eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"). Much of the discourse on the issue of civil society and social capital take place within the framework of the latter understanding of life. To me that is like talking about the techniques of pushing ones Ferrari around town and not talking about gasoline. Definitions of social capital and civil society are very definitely colored by one's faith perspective. Enhancing civil society or boosting social capital are directly related to changing from "one tree to the other" as our life source. Our upcoming celebration of yet another Christmas, is a reminder of God's efforts to get us to do just that.

Off-Line Resources

• Encarnacion, Ormar G. "Tocqueville's Missionaries: Civil Advocacy and the promotion of Democracy".World Policy Journal. Spring, 2000. (p9-18). Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  Civil Society (loosely) is defined as the volunteer sector or third sector of society (government and private sectors being the other two). It is (and was in the past by deTocqueville) touted as the social infrastructure supporting USA's democratic system. Without it, systems like the United States go astray. It is seen as a corrective to State abuses of rights.

  Addressing the needs of civil society is a current preoccupation in international development, but this article notes that democracy also needs:

  • political institutionalization
  • social and economic development.

  It should be remembered that the early stages of democratic institutional development in the USA took the form of a general awareness of British institutions, as well as a concerted selling job by the constitutional framers. Even then, the institutions of government have evolved over time, and are at best a rough approximation of democracy. This is a good reflective article on the subject from the perspective of community development.

• Dahl,Robert A. "The Problem of Civic Competence". The Journal of Democracy. Vol3,No.4,October 1992.(p.45-59). Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  Dahl raises the lack of civic competence by citizens as a big problem for society today. This results in a search for ways to increase civil competence for both old and new countries. He raises two questions:
  • What standards?
  • Who fares well?

  Dahl raises the question of how to create "empathetic" understanding amongst citizens rather than just "cognitive" understanding. He is especially concerned about this aspect of community development as the North American continent becomes more heterogeneous, and the [Babel] groups mix more and more over the next century.

• Wall, Ellen, Gabriele Ferrazzi and Frans Schryer. "Getting the Goods On Social Capital". Rural Sociology. Vol.63,No.2,June,1998 (p300-322). Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This paper is an examination of the background and connotations of the new term "social capital". It carries a caution for social researchers to be explicit in their meaning of the term because a diversity of meanings float in the community. They note that people like the term because:
  • other disciplines use part of it ("capital")
  • it is versatile in its meaning
  • it is easy to explain t lay people

  They develop three major users of the term as a start to a base for multiple definitions being better understood.

• Goodall, Todd. "Maintaining Solidarity: A look Back at the Mormon Village".Rural Sociology.Vol.65,No.3,Sept 2000 (p.359-375). Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This study is a fascinating follow-up to an earlier (1920's) study of Mormon villages and the roots of solidarity. He adds in some new factors to the earlier one. He notes that most community studies are of the dissolution of societies which makes the results considerably unbalanced. He notes the differences with Anabaptist groups, particularly the fact that the Mormons retreated with an outward look rather than an inward look towards the world they left behind. Their retreat was one of re-groping and mutual support in order to change the world they left behind. A very interesting study for me if only because one branch of my ancestral family left on the great Mormon treck to the founding of Utah.

• Ferrazzi, Gabe. "The Role of Social Capital" . Rural Community Development Introductory Modules,(WebCT class notes). Brandon University, Fall, 2001.Module # 9b .
  Gabe's intro notes spell out the history and nuances of the concept of social capital and not that its broad usage necessitates its close definition in research work. The term has many other synonyms, and takes its flavor from the underlying discipline of each user of the term. He raises the question of whether the degree of social cohesion is just changing its form or if its actually diminishing in rural Canada. He notes the aspect of he New Rural Economy research initiative designed to measure the state of social cohesion in rural Canada today.

• Ferrazzi, Gabe. "Civil Society" . Rural Community Development Introductory Modules,(WebCT class notes). Brandon University, Fall, 2001.Module # 3-d .
  Gabe's dealing with civil society includes both definition and examples of civil society and a note that both positive and negative groups come under this heading. He notes the watchdog and policy recommendation organizations of which RUPRI in the United States is one.

On-line Resources

On-Line Resources