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Civil Society at the Turn of the Millenium: Prospects for an Alternative World Order Author(s): Robert W.

Cox Source: Review of International Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1999), pp. 3-28 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20097573 Accessed: 08/07/2010 16:17
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Review

of International

Studies

(1999),

25, 3-28

Copyright

? British

International

Studies

Association

Civil

society at the turn of the millenium: for an alternative world order1 prospects
ROBERT W. COX

Abstract.

The meaning

of

'civil

society'

has

evolved

considerably

since

its use

in the context

of

the 18th century European Enlightenment. Then it signified the realm of private interests, in practice the realm of the bourgeoisie, distinct from the state. While one current of thought
retains activity that meaning of social and forces that in its implications, from distinct on which the latter an others both view and civil society rather Antonio as state capital. the emancipatory Gramsci's thought

embraced both meanings:


but bourgeoisie Is civil society also today

civil society was the ground that sustained the hegemony


counterhegemony emancipatory a surrogate for revolution sense, could that be seems a

of the
remote

constructed.

possibility towards the attainment of an alternative social and world order? It is useful to test this proposition by examining the potential for civil society in different parts of the world.

Eric Hobsbawm has written that is in a state Century [1914-1991] is hard crisis . . .'2The conclusion imperialist struggle in the former new states seeking a modus vivendi

'[t]he world at the end of the Short Twentieth of social breakdown rather than revolutionary to avoid. 'Real socialism' has collapsed; the anti colonial world has resolved itself into a series of

to global capitalism; in subordination the Left in for an alternative to neoliberal globalization while in Europe is searching uncertainly to it; even the Islamic revolution in Iran is hesitatingly moving the main adapting an adjustment to dominant world economic forces. There is much towards none of it could and Ulster?but the Balkans, central Africa, Algeria, violence?in in the sense of promising a transformation of society. Global be called revolutionary finance has lurched from the Mexican peso crisis in the 1980s to the Asian crisis in the 1990s, leaving a marginalized Africa almost unnoticed; but while finance dominates and constrains all governments' there is no concerted means of policies, global financial management. If world politics is in such a condition of turbulent stasis, with little hope of calm but no prospect of fundamental of rich people and poor change, the polarization is becoming accentuated the world. There is also people increasingly throughout evidence that people have become disenchanted with existing forms of politics. In

on Gramsci, to the Conference original version of this article was a paper presented Modernity, the Twentieth convened in Cagliari, Istituto Gramsci, 15-18 Rome, Century, by the Fundazione 1997. In revising it, I am most grateful for comments James Sakamoto, by Yoshikazu April Masaharu Michael Cox and two Takashima, Schechter, Timothy Mittelman, Sinclair, Michael I am especially to Yoshikazu readers for the Review of International Studies. indebted anonymous to the question for directing my attention of civil society in our times. I, of course, alone Sakamoto for the text as it appears here. bear responsibility The and Eric Hobsbawm, 1994) p. 459. The Age of Extremes. A History of the World, 1914-1991 (New York: Pantheon,

Robert W Cox

many activists and theorists have looked to civil society as the alternative, more equitable forms of society might arise. Is civil that seems unlikely to society in the late 20th century the surrogate for a revolution There is a debate on the Left about this and that is the question behind the happen? revival of interest in civil society. in European The concept of civil society has a long history and American these circumstances, source from which In order to around the world. thought. From that source, it has been exported the transformatory of civil society in our time, it is useful to explore potential some of that history. Antonio consult that tradition, Gramsci, drawing upon a view of civil society particularly to the present debate; and constructed pertinent I he did so at a time when revolutionary transformation still seemed a possibility. propose to examine the changing meanings of the term 'civil society' over the years, in their historical these meanings and contemporary contexts, and then to placing as an approach to understanding reflect upon Gramsci's thought society and politics context of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s but that took form in the specific historical context of the late twentieth in the changed world-wide still has fruitful applicability
century.

as an abstract theorist with building a system of concerned that would stand the test of time. He was concerned with changing political analysis his world. Any development of his thinking should keep that goal to the fore and of the world as it is, and should thus both arise from reflection on the condition serve as a guide to action designed to change the world so as to improve the lot of Gramsci not in social equity. humanity Civil society, in Gramsci's thinking, is the realm in which the existing social order a new social order can be is grounded; and it can also be the realm in which concern with civil society was, first, to understand the strength of the founded. His status quo, and then to devise a strategy for its transformation. The emancipatory of civil society was the object of his thinking. In the Prison Notebooks3, potential in different passages. civil society is an elastic concept, having different connotations as a function of the state as in the frequently quoted Often civil society appears society+civil society, in other words hegemony protected equation: 'State=political the armour of coercion' honed much of his thought (PN, p. 263). Gramsci by in of Benedetto Croce. Croce saw the state, following Hegel, against the philosophy in an historical materialist idealistic terms as the embodiment of ethics.4 Gramsci, from the social and cultural practices understood ethics as emanating perspective, to cope with their conditioned human communities historically Croce's ethical state, for Gramsci, becomes ethical through the instru environment. of civil society. There is a dialectic inherent in civil society. In one aspect, mentality the educational and ideological agencies that are sustained ultimately by the state's that enable and culture. Yet in another aspect civil society coercive apparatus shape morals and to be more fundamental than the state, indeed to be appears to have autonomy the basis upon which a state can be founded. Civil society is both shaper and

was

are taken from Antonio the in the text to the Prison Notebooks Selections from References Gramsci, Prison Notebooks and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: edited and translated by Quintin Hoare referred to as PN. International Publishers, 1971), subsequently 4 and Morals See, e.g., Benedetto Croce, Politics 1945) pp. 22-32, (New York: Philosophical Library, of the human ethos'. where he described the state as 'the incarnation

Civil society at the turn of the millennium 5 shaped, an agent of stabilization and reproduction, and a potential agent of

transformation.

There is little point in trying to establish a fixed definition of Gramsci's concepts from exegesis of his text. That would negate Gramsci's way of thinking. He thought are derived and dialectically, that is to say, his concepts from his historically essence of a of reality and they serve not only to seize the momentary perceptions changing reality but also to become intellectual tools for fomenting change. Certain basic guidelines are essential in order to discern what Fernand Braudel later called the limits of the possible, the starting point from which strategic planning for social has to begin. The first of these is to know accurately the prevailing relations of social forces. These have material, and ideological com organizational, the configuration of an historic bloc. ponents, together constituting Yet Gramsci was less concerned with the historic bloc as a stable entity than he was with historical mutations and transformations, and with the emancipatory for human agency in history. The concept of civil society in this emanci potential the combination of forces upon which the support for a new patory sense designates state and a new order can be built. These forces operate in a political and social a terrain occupied different forces as historical space, by conflicting change terrain which is narrowed when there is a close identity between people proceeds?a transformation their political and social institutions terms, when hegemony (in Gramsci's but which is widened when this identity isweak. prevails) Any fixed definition of the content of the concept 'civil society' would just freeze a in history and privilege the relations of social forces then particular moment Rather than look for clearer definitions, we should try to understand the prevailing. historical variations that have altered the meanings of the concept in the ongoing dialectic of concept and reality. We should not stop with the world of the 1930s which Gramsci knew but carry on the process into the late 20th century. To continue and develop Gramsci's way of thinking ismore true to his purpose than to mummify his text. and

The changing meanings

of 'civil society'

in the last decade of the 20th century, we must recognize that the European Writing tradition of political civilization thought will now be seen as that of a particular with others. It can no longer make an uncontested claim to universality, coexisting even though the concepts evolved in western discourse have penetrated into all parts of the world through the era of Western dominance. Thus, Western terms may cover that are different. To Westerners these terms may obscure these differences to familiar Western meanings. them This must be borne in mind in by assimilating using a term like 'civil society'. We must be alert not only to the surface appearance but also to a non-Western that may be deeply buried. Nevertheless, it is meaning realities to retrace the concept to its European of civil society roots in the necessary Enlightenment. as the realm of particular Civil society in Enlightenment thought was understood interests, which in practice then meant the realm of the bourgeoisie. The state ideally embodied universality, the rule of law. The monarch was to be the first servant of

Robert W Cox

the rule of law. An intellectual problem for the the state, bound by and applying was how to explain the necessary of the two, of the compatibility Enlightenment If the state were to em interests and the realm of universality. realm of particular in the ethico then civil society must generate universal principles body universality, juridical sphere; civil society must be seen as creating the basis of common welfare out of the pursuit of particular interests. Both Hegel and Adam Smith thought they the Christian doctrine of this reconciliation had achieved by in effect refurbishing as the 'ruse of in Smith's case as the 'invisible hand' and in Hegel's Providence, reason'.5 In its European origins, civil society and the bourgeoisie were synonymous. if not social group whose the self-conscious Civil influence, society signified its executive power, was expanding. necessarily Karl Marx was, of course, sceptical about the emergence of common good from the pursuit of individual interests. He saw rather that civil society was generating a force within itself that would ultimately destroy or change it: the proletariat. He also to sketch an outline of an Asiatic mode of Europe regard beyond themselves ad infinitum; and in his in which rural villages reproduced production' century he discerned a social structure analysis of French society of the mid-19th more dualism of his capitalist mode of than the bourgeois/proletarian complex was the starting point for civil society, the 19th If the bourgeoisie production. social groups and century opened up the concept to embrace a variety of conflicting cast his
interests.

19th century addition to the complexity of the concept A particularly significant came from Alexis de Tocqueville's What work on American impressed democracy.6 formed by people for of associations, spontaneously Tocqueville was the flourishing of the state. In the context of outside of common the achievement purposes as a guarantee saw this proliferation of associations American politics, Tocqueville that might result from an electoral sweep in an era against a tyranny of the majority to the stabilizing influence he saw in He drew an analogy of populist politics. societies as arising from the existence of secondary bodies inherited from European medieval times which acted as a restraint upon monarchic power. thus became a significant aspect of the concept The spirit of voluntary association and the is no longer identified with of civil society. Civil capitalism society of a mobilized but now takes on the meaning citizenry juxta participant bourgeoisie who was concerned and state power. For Gramsci, economic posed to dominant with the working class for action in combination with the problem of mobilizing in the construction of other potential class allies, there was never a pure spontaneity of leadership and but always a combination organization was to 'stimulate sense of the optimum below. His relationship compact social blocs, which will give birth to their homogeneous, will in turn react their own vanguard?who their own commandos, . . .' (PN pp. 204-5). Gramsci's historical in order to develop them discovered the spirit of different from that in which Tocqueville social society of farmers, artisans, and merchants untrammelled movement from the formation of own intellectuals, upon those blocs context was very in a association status

by the class and

Carl Becker, The Heavenly Press, 1932). University 6 De Alexis de Tocqueville,

City

of the Eighteenth

Century

Philosophers

(New Haven, 1951).

CT: Yale

la D?mocratie

en Am?rique

2 vols

(Paris: Gallimard,

1 Civil society at the turn of the millennium societies. To counter the fascist politics of the 1930s, he inheritance of European on one side, and the notion or 'voluntarism', of a both rejected 'spontaneity' elite manipulating the masses, on the other. revolutionary to the flourishing in America of autonomous As counterpoint voluntary associa of civil the merger tions outside of the state, 19th century Europe experienced the state in the form of corporatism. State leaders, perceiving the dis in industrializing to bring of class struggle societies, sought ruptive potential into a consensual relationship with the state for employers and organized workers of the economy and the support of state political and military the management in society out of account; left those who are relatively powerless goals. Corporatism society with but being powerless and unorganized they could hardly be considered part of civil era began in mid-century with conservative The corporatist leaders like society. Disraeli and Bismark and extended into the post-World War II decades in the form state. This era is well encapsulated in Gramsci's State= of the welfare equation: society. political society+civil The French Revolution left another legacy with implications for civil society: the that would intervene between the state and the citizen. of anything rejection as a means as of liquidating medieval the principle Conceived corporations, in the Le Chapelier law of 1791 was in the early 19th century turned embodied of trade unions. The same principle was reasserted by the against the formation in the 20th century revolutionary Russian context: all allowable associa Bolsheviks tions under 'real socialism' would have to be part of an all-embracing Party-state. Civil society was denied existence. inherent in this situation in his juxtaposition Gramsci the weakness of recognized the war of manoeuvre with the war of position when he referred to conditions at the onset of the Bolshevik revolution:
In Russia there was sturdy behind numerous an accurate the state was everything, relation between civil stood State society a powerful of was civil State society and was civil primordial State and and and when was gelatinous; the State only in the West, trembled ditch, or less a

a proper structure of there one

at once system it goes individual

society, revealed. The of fortresses

an outer more

which from

earthworks;

to the next, each

without country.

saying?but (PN,

this precisely

necessitated

reconnaissance

p. 238).

The 'proper relation between State and civil society' suggests that the State should rest upon and variegated the support of an active, self-conscious civil society and should, in turn, sustain and promote the development of the constructive forces in that society. The organic intellectual was, for Gramsci, the key link in this
process.

review of the use of the term 'civil society' in European and American thought yields broadly two juxtaposed meanings. One shows a 'top-down' process in which the dominant economic forces of capitalism form an intellectual and cultural in the capitalist order among the bulk of the which secures acquiescence hegemony This brief other envisages a 'bottom-up' led by those strata of the process are disadvantaged and deprived under the capitalist order who population build a counterhegemony that aspires to acquire sufficient acceptance among the so as to displace the erstwhile hegemonic order. With regard to the latter, population population. The which

8 Gramsci revolution

Robert W. Cox insisted that the revolution must occur (in civil society) prior to the

(in the form of the state).7

Civil society

in the late 20th century

made his analysis, there have been significant changes affecting the state to civil society and in the development of civil society in relationship different parts of the world. The world crisis of capitalism of the 1970s brought about a reversal of corporatism. Business persuaded that recovery of governments investment and growth from a situation of 'stagflation' required an attack on the Since Gramsci of on social welfare, of state expenditures and a reduction trade unions with deregulation of capital, goods, and financial markets. As governments together in this business analysis, trade unions and social-democratic forces were acquiesced inmost economically weakened advanced countries. Protection for the more vulner able elements in society was cut back; and these elements were implicitly challenged power of to organize of the state both to protest the loss of state support and independently to compensate for this loss by voluntary initiative and self-help. The collapse of 'real in the late 1980s seemed to herald a possible rebirth of civil society in socialism' those countries where civil independent
7 There

organizations

New society had been eradicated by the Party-state. of protest grew into the political that was opened space

Capitalism. critical of

of 'political Marxism' Wood, expressed by Ellen Meiskins Against Democracy Materialism is very Press, 1995), which Renewing Historical (Cambridge University the hopes of some people on the Left that civil society will play an emancipatory role. In order. This originated her view, civil society retains its original with the identity with the bourgeois in bourgeois and economics, distinction made the conceptual ideology between politics creating 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 true that in capitalist 'It is certainly the bourgeois social order. She writes: society, with its separation of "political" and "economic" spheres, or the state and civil society, coercive public power is to a greater degree than ever before, but this simply means centralized and concentrated that one of the principal functions of "public" coercion by the state is to sustain "private" power in civil society.' and (p. 255) Her charge against the current appeal to civil society by the 'new social movements' to the is that it occludes the reality of class domination and fragments the opposition postmodernism order into a variety of distinct bourgeois struggles for 'identity', thereby perpetuating capitalist domination. The Empire of Civil Society. A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Justin Rosenberg, to international Ellen Wood's relations, arguing (London: Verso, 1994) transposes reasoning of power mystify and the balance the that the classical Westphalian concept of state sovereignty reality of power in the capitalist world order. The 'public' sphere of the state system is paralleled by to sustain and the state system functions in the 'private' sphere of the global economy; 'private' power the latter, the 'empire of civil society'. a cogent argument with regard to the 'top-down' meaning of civil 'Political Marxism' provides to identities that indiscriminate deference society, and in its critique of a postmodernism implies a

is a current

Relations

of opposition to the dominant order. The argument ismore and therefore weakening fragmentation as a counterhegemonic 'war of position' in its apparent rejection of the Gramscian questionable of civil society in an of civil society and for the transformation strategy for the conquest are: Two key points in the 'political Marxist' thesis that bear reexamination direction. emancipatory as a monolithic of capitalism force which excludes the possibility of (1) the positing 'totalizing' so as to perceive that it is subject to historical change and can take different historicizing capitalism 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 have restructured social production discussed below. in and proletariat the ways which obscures in which changes relations, during recent decades. Both points are especially

9 Civil society at the turn of the millennium and uncertainty of political authority. In both cases, the political by the disruption or not and social space in which civil society could develop was expanded. Whether the opportunity would be realized was a challenge to human agency.

The restructuring

of society by economic globalization

elements with the working class?remains pertinent bourgeois in today's world. What is relevant today is the strategy of class alliance rather than form of alliance derived from his understanding of the class Gramsci's particular structure of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. It is problematic the pro whether today to be a 'fundamental' universal class. Indeed, the very letariat can still be considered as a single class juxtaposed to the bourgeoisie has lost of a proletariat notion retains some impetus. substance in reality even if its ideological persuasiveness International categories: At the top is a core workforce These of highly skilled people into the integrated take the decisions about what is produced people They carry on research and development; they main production is dividing the world's producers into broadly three

of The globalization 19th and challenge sense of the strategic bloc which could and petty peasantry

is restructuring the world labour force in ways that notions of class structure. Gramsci's keen century of building class alliances into a counterhegemonic importance the bourgeoisie?he advocated linking ultimately displace production early 20th

process. management and where and by whom. tain the productive frameworks and apparatus; and they staff the administrative the ideology of globalization. propagate At a second level, this integrated core is flanked by a larger number of support

ing workers whose numbers vary with levels of demand for products. Their lesser levels of skill make them more easily disposable and replaceable. These are the workers. They are located where business is offered the lowest labour precarious in the use of labour, i.e. the least protection of costs, the greatest flexibility environmental controls. These workers workers' rights in jobs; and the weakest are segmented by ethnicity, and thus are not religion, gender, and geography, to confront management in a united manner. Trans easily organized collectively nationalized production has accentuated social fragmentation and environmental degradation. The third level comprises those people who are excluded from international enter and many small low-technology include the unemployed They production. in the richer countries and a large part of the marginalized in prises population
poor countries.

structure (integrated, precarious, in this three-fold hierarchical The proportions and excluded) vary from country to country, but the categories cut across territorial to alter the proportions boundaries and the ability of governments is severely limited their dependence upon global finance. Precarious and exclusion were by employment that followed from the capitalist accentuated by the decline in social expenditures now focuses on state budget deficits and crisis of the 1970s. Economic orthodoxy urges states to further reduce social expenditures.

10 These

Robert W Cox

to the material tendencies give a new configuration basis of civil society. who speak of civil society today do not usually have in mind the realm of People common economic interests as did Hegel and Adam Smith. The distinction today is between dominant power over society shared by corporations and states, on the one to side, and popular forces on the other. 'Civil society' is now usually understood refer to the realm of autonomous group action distinct from both corporate power and the state. The concept has been appropriated by those who foresee an emanci between the meaning patory role for civil society. There is thus a marked distinction of 'civil society' in the work of 18th and 19th century theorists and the way that term is commonly understood civil society is another today. In the earlier meaning, term for the social power relations deriving from the economy. Gramsci's usage It differed from Marx's, as Norberto stemmed from that of Hegel and Marx. Bobbio has shown, by including the ethical and ideological and not just the superstructure
economic base.8

The current widely understood usage which excludes dominant power in the state and corporations from the concept of civil society received impetus from the movements to Stalinist of opposition rule in Eastern Europe. They were charac to terized as a 'rebirth of civil society'9 of opposition Similarly, movements in Asian and Latin American authoritarian rule and capitalist dominance countries are commonly perceived as emanations of civil society. So 'civil society' has become term for various ways in which people express collective wills the comprehensive independently of (and often in opposition to) established power, both economic and political. This current usage has more affinity to Tocqueville than to Hegel, Adam Smith or to Gramsci's Marx. But it also has affinity usage, since Gramsci regarded civil society not only as the realm of hegemony supportive of the capitalist status quo, but also as the realm in which cultural change takes place, in which the counter of emancipatory forces can be constituted. Civil society is not just an hegemony
assemblage of actors, i.e. autonomous social groups. It is also the realm of con

the intersubjective testing ideas in which are based can become transformed 'reality'
society can emerge.

upon which people's meanings and new concepts of the natural

sense of order of

There is little point in arguing that one usage of the term 'civil society' is correct of civil society with and the other is wrong. Let us take current identification autonomous and examine its implications. social forces as a basis for discussion in this more the powerful Even conceived limited way, i.e. without including economic forces, civil society in the late 20th century, though generally viewed as and transformative of the social order, can be seen to potentially emancipatory reflect the dominance In a 'bottom-up' sense, of state and corporate economic civil society is the realm power. in which can mount those who groups are dis

of the world economy advantaged by globalization This can happen local community seek alternatives. through
8

their protests and that reflect

in John Keane Norberto 'Gramsci and the concept of civil society', and Bobbio, (ed.), Civil Society the State. New European Perspectives and New York: Verso, (London 1988). The essay was originally Atti del Convengno Internazionale di Studi in Gramsci e la cultura contemporarea: published Rome Gramsciani, Adam Przeworski, pp. 29-54, 1968. socialism in Poland?', Studies in Political Economy 5, spring 1981, 'Democratic esp. pp. 37-41.

Civil society at the turn of the millennium

11

diversity of cultures and evolving social practices world wide. Looking beyond local is the project of a 'civic state', a new form of political grass roots initiatives still is the vision based upon a participatory authority democracy.10 More ambitious constitute a basis of a 'global civil society' in which these social movements together
for an alternative world order.11

states and corporate interests influence the sense, however, 'top-down' it an agency for of this current version of civil society towards making development status quo. The dominant forces the social and political stabilizing hegemonic to non of popular movements. State subsidies and coopt elements penetrate incline the latter's objectives towards con (NGOs) governmental organizations order and thus enhance the legitimacy of the formity with established order. This concords with a concern on the part of many people for of the social order. rather than for transformation existing conditions to revolutionary clientelism may seem preferable commitment, people, prevailing survival in For many

In a

especially the basic conflicts when backed by the force of state and economic power. Moreover, between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, are reproduced within the sphere of whether trade unions or the new social movements.12 voluntary organizations,

Global governance

Gramsci's distinct

sense that national national situations

situations are specific still has validity but now these are much more dependent upon the global economy.13

10

11

I take the term 'civic state' from Yoshikazu 'Civil society and democratic world order' in International Studies and Transformation pp. 207-219.

in personal See also his article Sakamoto, correspondence. in Stephen Gill and James H. Mittelman (eds), Innovation Press, 1997) (Cambridge: University Cambridge

and the Global Order. From theModern State to Cosmopolitan See, e.g., David Held, Democracy G Schechter, Governance 'Globalization and Press, 1995). Michael (Stanford: Stanford University on the United Nations to the annual meeting of the Academic civil society', paper presented Council a critical review of literature on 'global San Jose, Costa Rica, June 1997, contains System (ACUNS), sense civil society'. Even the most optimistic writers regard 'global civic society' in the emancipatory as something to be achieved, not as something that already exists. In the 'top-down' hegemonic sense,

7 above) refers to the 'empire of civil society' as control by by contrast, Rosenberg (see footnote In the same sense, but without the Marxist theoretical Susan Strange framework, global capitalism. has written about a 'non-territorial empire' (in 'Toward a theory of transnational empire', E.-O. to and James N Rosenau (eds), Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges. Czempiel Approaches MA: Lexington World Politics for the 1990s, Lexington, Books, 1989). 12 in Laura Macdonald, Civil Society. The Political Role of Non-Governmental Organizations Supporting Central America of 'ideal types' of NGOs Macmillan, 1997) gives a useful classification (Basingstoke: or transformation to their consequences for maintenance of social and political order. She according and post-Marxist suggests three types: neo-conservative, (or Gramscian) (pp. 15-23). liberal-pluralist, With between dominant the labour movement, and subordinate groups within regard to opposition see Robert W. Cox, a reply' in Cox with Timothy and 'Labor and hegemony: 'Labor and hegemony' J. to World Order (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Sinclair, Approaches 13 to international 'A new approach Bernadette Madeuf and Charles-Albert economics' Michalet, International Social Science Journal 30: 2 (1978): pp. 253-83, made the distinction between the as flows of goods, payments, across frontiers) international and investments economy (understood on an integrated basis was being organized in which production and an emerging form of economy located in a number of countries. In the English translation of their article, which was among entities written French in French, the emerging economy was term applied to the process generating which accords with the called the 'world economy', The term 'global economy' is it, mondialisation.

12 The

Robert W Cox

territorial distinctness of national economies and societies is penetrated by forces. The problem of hegemony is posed at the level of global and transnational as well as at regional, national the global political and local levels. As economy towards a 'new many analysts of world affairs have suggested, we seem to be moving medievalism' At with multiple layers of authority and multiple loyalties.14 the top, there is no identifiable regime of dominance. The new popularity of the term 'global governance' control and orientation in the absence of suggests is something coercive power. There that could be called a formally legitimated nascent global historic bloc consisting of the most powerful economic corporate their allies in government, and the variety of networks that evolve policy forces, the ideology of globalization. States now by and large play guidelines and propagate the role of agencies of the global economy, with the task of adjusting national to the perceived economic and practices of global economic policies exigencies liberalism. This structure of power is sustained from outside the state through a consensus and the influence of global finance over state policy, and global policy from inside the state from those social forces that benefit from globalization (the in segment of society that is integrated into the world economy).15 Competitiveness the world market has become the ultimate criterion of state policy which justifies the of social protection built up in the era of the gradual removal of the measures state. Neo-liberalism is hegemonic welfare and in terms of policy. ideologically is not sufficient to protect the structure of Where and policy hegemony ideological then military force is available. The Gulf War was an object global governance, force intervenes when a regional power tries to ignore the lesson in how military global hegemony.16 This global hegemony has profound consequences for the relationship of political to civil society. As the state retreats from service and social protection to the society in the integrity and competency of the political public, the public loses confidence class. Political is inherent in the transformation of public goods into corruption a political favour acquires a market value. The loyalty of marketable commodities; as scepticism and becomes more questionable institutions people to their political and abilities of politicians grows. These tendencies vary cynicism about the motives honour the symbols of flag and constitution, but about among countries. Americans

to designate the organization of production and finance on a world used now in English as the process generating it. Of course, much of the world's economic 'globalization' still goes on outside this global economy, constrained albeit increasingly by and subordinated activity I reserve the term 'world economy' for the totality of economic activities of to the global economy. is the dominant which the global economy process on power part. The impact of the globalization to entrench of institutions the relations among social forces and states, and in the formation designed or in stimulating to it is the realm of 'global political resistance economy'. global economy 14 See, for example, Hedley Bull, The Anarchical (New York: Society. A Study of Order in World Politics commonly scale and Columbia Diffusion Bertrand Press, 1977) esp. pp. 254?5; also Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State. The University Press, 1996); and Cambridge (Cambridge: University of Power in the World Economy du monde. Sociologie de la sc?ne Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts, Le retournement Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, internationale 1992). On (Paris: Presses de la Fondation

and the obsolescence of conventional of world politics of the increasing complexity see also James N. Rosenau, the Domestic-Foreign Frontier. and distinctions, Along in a Turbulent World (Cambridge Governance Press, 1997). Exploring University 15 the role of the state', in James H. Mittelman See Leo Panitch, 'Rethinking (ed.) Globalization: Critical Reflections 1996). (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 16 to World in Cox with Timothy J. Sinclair, Approaches and security', Robert W. Cox, 'Production this theme boundaries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 276-95.

Order

Civil society at the turn of the millennium half of them do not bother

13

to vote and most seem to have low expectations of their scandals are rife in Europe and Japan, and public hopes for politicians. Corruption salvation through politics are equally low. Throughout most of the rest of the world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, people have endured government more than they have felt themselves to be a part of it. At the end of this century, there is a world a sense of wide problem of repairing or building political societies, of constructing identity between between constituted people and political authorities. There is a wide and the practical life of people. authority political space

Revival

of civil society as a response

to globalization?

Civil

a new or reconstructed be the base upon which political society would would have to rest. This was Machiavelli's the authority insight when he advocated a citizen militia. There is some evidence of growth in of mercenaries replacement by In the French civil society coming about as a reaction to the impact of globalization. strikes of late 1995 and the strikes in South Korea in early 1997, reaction has come in the French case with broad public support. In through trade union movements, and some other Asian there has been a growth of many non countries, Japan often of a local self-help kind, and often actively governmental organizations, with

similar organizations in other and southeast Asia, community often led by women, endeavour to meet basic needs on a local level, organizations, economic that are turning their backs upon states and international organizations as acting against the people. In central America, the Mayan perceived people have state of Chiapas, initiative through armed revolt in the Mexican recovered historical have fought a civil war to the point of and the indigenous people of Guatemala building linkages and mutual help relationships In some poor countries of Africa countries. of their recognition gaining in different something moving in civil 'bottom-up' movement structure and ideology. This It may contain uncoordinated. the status of a counterhegemonic are indicative These various instances of across the globe towards a new vitality of to the hegemonic power society as a counterweight movement still relatively weak and is, however, some of the elements but has certainly not attained alliance of forces on the world scale. claims. societies

Exclusionary

populism

and the covert world

There civil

the retreat of the state and other space, this void, attracts forms of extreme right political racism. Social anomie is also a propitious recruiting set of forces can be called the covert cults. Another some carried out secretly activities, underground society. This various populism:
criminal.

is a gap between

the still small development of is exclusionary forces. One and xenophobic ground for hermetic religious world, a complex congeries of in the name of states, some to established (France, power. movements

has Exclusionary populism Extreme right-wing movements

an ambiguous relationship in some European countries

Italy, Austria,

14

Robert W. Cox

have captured fifteen per cent or more of the popular vote in the Belgium, Norway) the conventional them by accepting their 1990s, and challenge right to legitimize In the United States, the far right perceives a global conspiracy against support.17 the basic principles of American freedom from life?especially private property, which the federal government is control, and the right to have guns?in government in Japan, or the Solar Temple in Canada, like Aum Shinrikyo collusive.18 Cults in the United and Heaven's Gate France and Switzerland, States, pose a nihilistic threat to society; they attract well educated people, an indicator of the extent of them in the service of a doomsday scenario.19 alienation, and mobilize The covert world comprises intelligence services, organized crime, terrorist groups, the arms trade, money-laundering is a certain banks, and secret societies. There extremism between and the covert world and also between overlap right wing cults and the covert world. Right wing terrorists have been suspected of doomsday collusion March The Their crime tuting people. The furthered services in Italy in several bombings. Aum Shinrikyo intelligence its doomsday the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in plans, including arms dealers. 1995, with the help of transnational various elements of the covert world have usually been studied one by one. activities have often been treated d?faits divers, the material for spy novels and as consti in their interrelationships fiction. They have not been considered a particular of politics existing between visible government and the sphere as well as of conflict among its Yet there are many instances of cooperation with
elements.

component

in government the visible authorities and corpora penetrates Its expansion was encouraged by the Cold War when, for instance, mafia in Italy and Yakuza in Japan acquired a supportive relationship with the political party to United that constituted the bulwark against internal opposition formations States for electoral politics was channelled Cold War strategy. Money through covert tions.
agencies to sustain anti-Communist coalitions and to influence electoral outcomes.

covert world

econo Covert forces assume a functional relationship with neo-liberal deregulated a totally unregulated in for legitimate mies. Covert power substitutes authority are enforced by goons with guns.20 The high cost of electoral market?contracts clandestine political financing which opens the door to covert politics encourages in national politics. influences The political space between constituted authority and the people is the terrain on can be built. A weak and stunted civil society allows free rein to which civil society civil society makes exclusionary politics and covert powers. An expansive participant
17 Le Monde 1998. 'N?ofascisme', diplomatique, April Ignacio Ramonet, 18 common sense in the United in Stephen Gill and Mark Rupert, and contested 'Globalisation States', in International and Transformation Studies James H. Mittelman (eds), Innovation (Cambridge extreme manifestation of this tendency is withdrawal from Press, 1997). The most University of private militias and perpetration of terrorist acts like American society with the formation political

the Oklahoma City bombing. 19 in Aum and dreams of apocalypse: Yumiko Iida, 'Virtual kingdom contemporary Japan mirrored at the 10th annual conference of the Japan Studies Association of paper presented Shinrikyo', 1997. Toronto, October Canada, 20 case today is the role of mafias in the Russian but an anecdotal instance The most obvious economy; has led to increased polarization of rich and poor and former relates to Argentina where deregulation torturers during the 'dirty war', have been of the naval intelligence members service, notorious as 'security' staff. Argentine killers find new line of work' by reemployed by private corporations Amaranta Wright, The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 28 February 1997.

Civil society at the turn of the millennium political authority more and covert activity. accountable and reduces the scope for exclusionary

15 politics

in the late 20th century of civil society takes us back to the The question of the 16th century: how to form the social basis for a new Machiavellian question concluded reluctantly that his contemporaries political authority. Where Machiavelli were too corrupt to do it on their own and looked to the Prince to provide the as the Modern the Communist Prince. At the initiative, Gramsci envisaged Party close of the 20th century, comes the vision of a 'post-modern' collective Prince constructed project would through a coordinating of popular movements. a resurgence of civil society. depend upon The feasibility of this

Gramsci's

thought and the making

of civil society

was Gramsci's starting point for thinking about society, consistent with Marxism, He referred to 'funda class structure derived from the relations of production. mental' classes (bourgeoisie and proletariat); but other non-fundamental classes, e.g. had considerable peasants and some elements of the petty bourgeoisie, importance as potential class in the formation of a counterhegemonic allies for the working for political action bloc. The consciousness of social groups and their organization was built upon this basic material condition. was not, for Gramsci, a direct derivative Consciousness of class; it was an not an automatically historical determined condition. There were construction, was what Gramsci different levels of consciousness. The lowest form called 'cor in a particular material of people the collective self-interest situation. porative', did not challenge the status quo in any essential respect; it consciousness Corporative out for the interest of a particular group. The next higher level was class just looked of the state. For whom was the state? Class it posed the question consciousness; unified various forms of corporative consciousness consciousness, e.g. among interests different groups of workers or among bourgeois whose specific material were in competition to focus upon the formation with one another, of political that would advance a concept of society based upon the leading funda authority mental the bourgeoisie but potentially the working class. Class class, in actuality to move accentuated the sense of cleavage necessary consciousness the dialectic
forward. Today, 'class' has become a more ambiguous notion as in common

discourse it ismixed with a variety of 'identities' in the formation of consciousness: gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality. Often these identities are subjectively opposed one to another and are open to manipulation in state and powers by dominant so as to fragment opposition. The common sentiment among them is a economy sense of oppression or exclusion. Class, in its generic meaning of social divisions can be seen as the substratum of this variety of grievances. arising from exploitation, But the disadvantaged
formation.

the remains of forging problem practical bind them together that would groups

links among divergent in a counterhegemonic

leads to what for Gramsci was the highest level of consciousness. challenge to Gramsci, would transcend class consciousness, Hegemonic according consciousness interests of the 'non-fundamental' social groups into by incorporating This

16 a vision make

Robert W Cox

of society based on one or other of the 'fundamental' classes; and it would this vision appear to be the 'natural order' of society. Gramsci's particular objective in the 1930s was the formation of a bloc led by the industrial working class in alliance with peasantry and petty bourgeois The questions intellectuals. now, towards the close of the 20th century, are: Who will lead? Who will follow? in consciousness This progression from corporative through class to hegemonic can be taken as a natural history of civil society. On the basis of the material for collective human action is built upon conditions of production, the potential self-conscious human groups. It is necessary to know when production relations have a for arousing created the conditions consciousness and for forming requisite

strategy for change. Not to have these basic conditions would be to fall into idealism and utopianism, the formation of class or hegemonic leading to failure. Though the existence of these material consciousness conscious conditions, depends upon an autonomous ness is nevertheless force. Ideology and the organization of social forces does not flow automatically from material conditions. The critical agents in are the organic intellectuals; the raising of consciousness for Gramsci they serve to of these groups thinking of social groups, leading the members clarify the political to understand their existing situation in society and how in combination with other social groups they can struggle towards a higher form of society. are relevant to this process of building other Gramscian civil concepts war of position and passive revolution. The war of position a strategy is society: the for the long-term construction of self-conscious social groups into a concerted bloc within society. It is only when the war of position has built up a emancipatory of organized the dominant combination social forces strong enough to challenge in the state can be effectively challenged and power in society that political authority to the war of manoeuvre is contrasted which might replaced. The war of position Two of social organization had been built up. seize state power before this groundwork a fragile victory, likely to To win a state by a war of manoeuvre would constitute succumb to the entrenched forces of a recalcitrant civil society. Thus, a civil society animated is an indispensable basis for durable new through popular participation political authority. in Gramsci's Passive revolution has a variety of meanings thought. It represents an abortive or incomplete transformation of society and can take various forms. One is change induced in a society by an external force that attracts internal support the opposition from some elements but does not overcome of other entrenched where situation of 'revolution/restoration' over the other. Passive revolu neither of the opposed bodies of forces is victorious is strong tion can also take the form of a stalled war of position strategy which a but not strong enough to overcome it. Furthermore, enough to provoke opposition to coopt elements of the power gradually strategy on the part of the dominant another forces?a strategy known in Italian politics as trasformismo?is opposition of passive form would be emancipatory revolution. Yet another strategies of the social groups from the material conditions involved, inevitably and idealism. Gramsci cited Tolstoyism and incurring the illusions of utopianism in this regard. So passive revolution points to many of the inadequacies Gandhism form divorced and obstacles in the attempted construction of civil society. forces. This can lead to an ambivalent

Civil society at the turn of the millennium Variations in prospects for civil society

17

The

in generating is experienced world-wide the three of production restructuring referred to above: integrated, precarious, and of social relations fold hierarchy excluded. The proportions, however, differ from society to society. The balance forces in civil society, and the relative importance between top-down and bottom-up of right-wing populism and the covert world, result in distinct types of state/society configurations patterns may in the world for civil society. Tentatively, with different implications four different serve to illustrate the range of conditions and prospects of civil society in today. These patterns or types are not intended to be exhaustive different

covering the whole world, but they do illustrate some of the significantly situations and prospects for civil society at the present time.

Evolved

capitalism

inEurope

and America

Evolved

in North America and western Europe constituted the point of capitalism to the rest of the world, Its influence penetrates impetus for economic globalization. to the level of material development and the resistance the impact varying according in other regions. Production is being restructured in of persisting cultural practices which brings about the pattern of integrated core workers the form of post-Fordism linked supporting workers. Global finance exerts a con flanked by precariously

built up during tinuing pressure on state budgets to reduce the social expenditures the era of Fordism which gave social legitimacy to capital. There is an implicit here between and finance. contradiction production Production and the 'real economy' that provides goods and services requires time to and the training of a committed labour force); develop (research and development returns directed to short-term finance has a synchronie perspective space-oriented not only the social which can often ignore the time dimension and undermine itself (for example, through apparatus legitimacy of capital but also the productive and asset stripping). In the late 20th century, it is global finance predatory buy-outs and the 'real economy' that focuses people's attention on the rather than production frailties of the economic order. is between the real economy and the biosphere. Expansion Another contradiction of consumer demand is the driving force of the global economy. World-wide emulation of the consumption model of North America and western Europe would, and environmental destruction, however, through resource depletion bring ruin to To escape this disaster would ultimate feed-back mechanism. the biosphere?the is surplus to that required to satisfy the require shifting the use of labour which in arousing and in (the labour resource currently employed to investment in social and human of consumerism) superfluity gratifying care of children and the aged, protection of the services health, (education, in social life). This would imply a fundamental and conviviality environment, change in economic in social practices and in the revolution and values?a organization structure of social power. A further contradiction is in social relations. A large proportion of jobs are in the in this category are often resentful skilled workers precarious category. Downgraded basic needs of society the

18 of

Robert W. Cox

are the other and women who the groups among immigrants significant are prominent Youth and minorities among the more or less precariously employed. a volatile and potentially is no excluded, group. There destabilizing permanently as the 'working class' of the early 20th century. A any such formation longer class has been absorbed into the integrated privileged part of that former working Other elements are in both precarious and excluded categories; and their category. as generating can easily be perceived material conditions adversarial relationships manual and women The workers. workers, immigrants downgraded a consequence of post-Fordism of the old working reinforced class, fragmentation of the Fordist-era social safety by pressures of global finance towards dismantling and divided labour. has strengthened capital and weakened net, The problem for the organic intellectuals of the Left is how to envisage a strategy that could build from this fragmented situation of subordinate social groups a to economic that would coherent alternative transcend {Aufhebung in globalization the contradictions Hegel's meaning) just referred to. These organic intellectuals are now themselves a fragmented lot: trade union social leaders, environmentalists, activists on behalf of the poor and homeless and the unemployed, and promoters of between clientele with right They compete for potential organizations. and religious cults. All of these various racists, anti-immigrant wing populists, are meanwhile movements transnational developing linkages and organizations. The covert world (organized crime, the drug trade, and intelligence services) occu space that has, if anything, been enlarged by public disillusionment pies a political self-help community with in politics. The high cost of electoral politics sustains hypocrisy to public support for campaign finance the political class, who ostensibly respond to rely on occult financial reform while continuing thus remaining contributions, in political open to occult influences. This, in turn, further erodes public confidence conventional

leadership. In Europe, evolved capitalism has two variants. One is the 'pure' hyperliberal form in the economy by deregulation which espouses removal of state intervention and in the global market its ultimate criterion. and makes competitiveness privatization This is the dominant tradition of social market variant. The other is the European sees the viability or social democratic which and legitimacy of an capitalism as as dependent in social relations recognized its being embedded economy upon the general population.21 The issue between the two forms of capitalism equitable by in the debate over 'social is being fought out at the level of the European Union institutions. Europe' and the filling of the 'democratic deficit' in European we can think of three constellations of forces: first, the In very general terms, and the political dominant forces in states and markets (corporate management a heterogeneous sustained second, class, surreptitiously by the covert world); identified as constituting civil society in the emanci category of groups commonly and third, right-wing and patory sense (trade unions and 'new social movements'); and religious cults that compete with the preceding groups for populist movements support among the unorganized mass of the people. to construct a 'bottom-up' In attempts social force, the question arises of com and the new social movements, between trade unions e.g. environ patibility
mentalism, 21 feminism, anti-poverty movements, and peace movements. The new

Michel

Albert,

Capitalisme

contre

capitalisme

(Paris: Seuil,

1991).

Civil society at the turn of the millennium

19

been of organized social movements have often labour, fearing suspicious labour's tighter and more hierarchical which might not domination organization by far more respect the social movements' loosely structured and more participatory the new movements forms of organization. arise more frequently from Moreover,
problems related to consumption, e.g. poverty and homelessness, rather than, as for

On the other hand, organized the realm of production. labour can in evolved capitalism, be a catalyst for a condition sometimes, despite its weakened more broadly based social movement to confront the established powers in state and a sustained concertation of social forces, i.e. one that Furthermore, corporations. unions, from would outlast a particular event or crisis, is hard to achieve among groups with the loose and participatory character of the new movements. Coherence and durability over time would be a necessary condition for having a sustained impact on political parties and thus on the state.

Asian

capitalism

and the cultural dimension

is the prototype of another form of capitalism with a different Japanese capitalism social context.22 In its origins, the pre-capitalist social and cultural form provided a foundation for imported Western and state sponsorship of industrializa technology in which tion. The result was a Japanese form of corporatism the state worked on the concept of an extended, and the firm developed if closely with business, to organizational bureaucratized, patriarchal family. Group loyalty contributed but workers were divided between those integrated with the firm and others strength; with a more casual or remote link to the central production (contract organization or out-sourcing The lifetime employment of the first category corres workers). to the impermanence In this manner, of the second. ponded Japanese practice has projected on to the world scale. prefigured the pattern that globalization structures. The This initial Asian pattern coincided with authoritarian political first in Japan during the post-World War II years, and rapid growth of economies, in several of the newly industrializing Asian economies subsequently (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, followed Thailand, by the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia), into existence both a large middle class oriented brought
towards consumerism and a more combative working class. In some of these

countries,

pressures

from both

of these social

forces has resulted

in attenuation

of

authoritarianism.

structures in many show continuity respects with pre-war Japan's political was introduced Democratization under the auspices of the American patterns. authorities. Domestic forces in Japan, reacting against the militaristic occupation state that had brought war and ruin, supported the democratic innovations. These to urge further democratization forces continued when US policy shifted ground to bring
22

including

Cold War alliance. Other domestic elements, Japan into the anti-communist those associated with the wartime regime, rallied to the new US anti

See Shigeto Tsuru, Japans Capitalism Press, 1993); Chalmers (Cambridge: Cambridge University and the Japanese Miracle Stanford University Johnson, MITI Press, 1982); and James (Stanford: at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political Fallows, Looking (New System York: Pantheon, 1994).

20
communist Gramsci's

Robert W Cox
line.23 sense. condition is a balance case of revolution non-catastrophic in

Japan's The

post-war revolution/restoration

passive

remains

growth priority of Japanese governments during the later a high degree of depoliticization. at least temporarily, Cold War period achieved, The democratizing forces of the post-war years were to a large extent demobilized the general preoccupation with economic growth. by has sufficient cohesion on its own, sustained by the long period Japanese society of economic growth, so that it has in practice made slight demands upon the state. Whether of economic stagnation or are concerned that the Japanese as a con cohesion of family and community may be dissolving strong formerly as well as sequence of modernization leading to more emphasis on individualism to work and organizational consumerism and to a lesser commitment loyalties.24 The covert world, particularly in the forms of organized crime and political corruption, thrives in Japan as it does also in South Korea and other Asian countries. Asian scholars point to a distinction among three spheres: state, market, and civil period recession relatively to Europe, weak human environmentalism, and internationalist goals. this would continue through a prolonged some is an open question. Moreover,

because

the economic

society.25 They see civil society in Asia as a late and still, which has focused on democratization, development the peace movement, and various mutual rights, self-help In these respects, civil society has made gains in Japan,

South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Private groups spon crime) contributed (including organized taneously and effectively to relief after the Kobe earthquake disaster of 1995, when the state's response proved to be disorganized and ineffective. Indeed, the current on civil society in Asia could be seen, in its emancipatory aspect, as the emphasis of the democratizing and people-based forces of Japan and their transnationalizing effort to atone for Japan's war guilt by building with arrangements cooperative

in other of Asia. There is also a movement towards parts or the imagining of a regional Asia-wide of which Japan Asianization', community eco is a part, which reflects both the consumerist material values of middle-class success and a right-wing aesthetic rejection of 'theWest'.26 Authoritarianism nomic movement in Singapore, Malaysia has impeded the democratization and Indonesia, local non-governmental exist in these countries. It is although many organizations difficult to speak of civil society in China so long as the authoritarianism of the limits the expression of aggrieved elements, Party-state although rapid economic in coastal China is generating stresses that may be and social polarization growth hard to contain. communities
23 context of the occupation 'The international of Japan', in Robert E. Ward and of (eds), Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation (Honolulu: University Hawaii 1995. Press, 1987); also Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 'Fifty Years of the Two Japans', typescript, 24 a cultural anthropologist, Professor Tamotsu Aoki, Research Center for Advanced Science and of Tokyo, at a symposium convened House of University Technology, jointly by the International 26, 1996. Japan and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Tokyo, September 25 Yoshikazu Professor emeritus of International and Young-Ho Sakamoto, Relations, Tokyo University on Prospects at Kyungpook at a symposium National South Korea, for Kim, Professor University, in Asia, House Civil Society International of Japan, Tokyo, September 24, 1996. 26 in Yoichi Funabashi, The Asianization' idea is presented 'The Asianization of Asia', Foreign Affairs inMitchell in the 72: 5 (1993). The notion of a regional civil society is discussed Bernard, 'Regions the local-global divide in the formation of the eastern Asian economy: beyond global political see Yumiko 1: 3 (November Iida, 1996). For a critical assessment, region', New Political Economy of otherness in Japanese pan-Asianism, 'Fleeing the West, making Asia home: transpositions 22 (1997), pp. 409-432. Alternatives 1905-1930', Yoshikazu Yoshikazu Sakamoto, Sakamoto

Civil society at the turn of the millennium Recent events in South Korea

21

of civil have thrown new light on the condition here has come from the effort of the large South Korean challenge society. in the global the chaebols, to compete as multinational corporations corporations, to revert to earlier the government this end they persuaded market. Towards authoritarian practices by restricting labour rights recently acquired so as to give the in hiring and firing. At the same time, the government chaebols more flexibility The to increase the powers of the intelligence services (Korean CIA). This to revert to authoritarianism and to enlarge the sphere of the covert world became united and gained provoked a general strike in which the labour movement The protest was a direct from students, teachers, and religious organizations. support reaction to globalization.27 As in the case of the French strikes of December 1995, the trade unions in South Korea provided the impetus for a response by civil society to state authoritarianism. in South Korea may be more authentic than passive, but it does not seem to Change sought attempt but rather to a more liberal radical structural transformation, In Japan, trade unions have not been identified of political authority. legitimation of civil society. They have been more aligned transformation with a 'bottom-up' the 1970s, environmental and the jobs they provide. During with corporations and regional levels in Japan that resulted in political changes at municipal protests were led by citizens apart from unions. Union members identified their jobs with in maintaining while their wives might feel freer to interests corporate production, be oriented towards in the environmentalist revolt. participate has generated the class basis Thus in some Asian countries capitalist development of civil society which is weaker than that of Europe in the face of for a development some signi state and corporate authoritarianism but which has nevertheless made in recent years. The social forces involved in this emergent civil ficant progress class (including students, environmentalists, peace activists society are both middle and organized and feminists) worker elements is problematic. structural change in societies. workers. Asia The coherence between middle class and gives a mixed picture of authentic and passive

State

breakdown

and predatory

capitalism

of the Soviet Union; but instances The prototype for this category is the breakdown are not limited to the former Soviet bloc. Similar situations have of the phenomenon arisen in countries of Latin America affected by the debt crisis. In broad outline, the crisis generated by both circumstances leading to this situation are: an economic state unable to carry out the internal and external causes leaves an authoritarian it has assumed; functions stratum of the population, based on electoral politics, firm basis for the new powers over the economy
27 A

aware external pressures, welcomed by a politically of a liberal democratic lead to the establishment regime to provide a but civil society is insufficiently developed state external pressures then succeed in reducing regime; in favour of an expansion
Pons in Le Monde,

of market
and

forces;

the weakness
1997; and

series of articles by Philippe Le Monde by Laurent Carrou?,

diplomatique,

February

15 January, 3 January, 1997.

16 January,

22

Robert W Cox

to regulate the market and the collapse of state authority open the of institutions to gain control in both state and way for organized crime and political corruption market the general population, survival, becomes spheres; struggling for personal and non-participant, while some elements nourish a nostalgic politically apathetic leader. The weakness of civil society is the hope for salvation by a charismatic critical element in this catastrophic cycle. The domestic cause of the collapse of the Soviet regime stemmed from its failure from extensive i.e. the addition of more development, the same kind, to intensive development, i.e. innovating productive capacity with higher productivity. This was exacerbated production technology by the external pressure to accelerate the arms race which placed an intolerable burden on the economy, the state from maintaining the social services it had preventing instituted as basic citizen rights.28 the transition of was and central European countries of the bloc, where the arms burden less than in the Soviet Union, movements opposition developed openly. In as a trade union became a rallying point for a broad based Solidarnosc Poland, to the communist opposition regime; and the Catholic Church had long stood as an alternate pole of loyalty to the state. into the streets to demonstrate the current interest scholarly In East Germany, Neues Forum mobilized the authoritarian against regime. As noted in civil society very largely originated in in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Hungary toppled signalled the communist in these regimes it would not or could not support In the eastern to make

people above, of the popular movements observation Democratic German which Republic countries
them.

after

the Soviet Union

had

later after they had achieved their initial purpose of crumbled state power. In retrospect, established in Gramsci's terms, they may overthrowing seem more like the phenomena of a war of manoeuvre than of a war of position. in these countries, encouraged Liberal democratic regimes were then established by and media and welcomed by local citizens. These were cases of In the Soviet Union, passive change came from the top. In Eastern and Central Europe, civil society played a bigger role. But after the collapse of the communist revolt did not for long remain as regimes, those who led the popular and the bureaucratic elites of the former regime became the major political forces; The solidity and durability of civil typical private market elites of post-communism. society remains questionable. External and support for the new regimes came more in the form of exhortations politicians revolution. technical advice urging reform' than in large-scale invest 'democracy and market ment and access for trade. It was clear that market reform in the ex-communist sphere had priority in western policy and that democracy was perceived as instru
mental towards market economics.

These movements

western

the erosion of state authority and the absence of effective regulation of the market led to a dramatic growth of mafia control over economic activity, corrupt of the state, and the forging of international criminal links, apologists penetration When
28 See various of J?nos Kornai, North-Holland, including Economics (Amsterdam: writings of Shortage 'Dilemmas of a socialist economy', Journal of Economics, 4: 2 (1980); also Cambridge Brus and Tadeus Kowalik, 'Socialism and development', Journal of Cambridge 7 (1983); and Robert W. Cox, '"Real socialism" in historical in Ralph perspective' and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register 1991 (London: Merlin Press, 1991).

1980; and Wlodzimierz Economics, Miliband

Civil society at the turn of the millennium

23

for liberal economics showed their preference for crime over state regulation. They as a probably necessary could view it with equanimity stage of primitive capital sub-national forces of accumulation.29 The collapse of state authority also unleashed the residues of economic which became vehicles for garnering ethnic nationalism and political power. countries also fit the model?Mexico and Columbia, for Several Latin American is associated with the imposition of 'struc The decline of state authority example. advocated with financial tural adjustment' leverage by the International policies to US pressure. looked Fund and backed Initially, US policy by Monetary to introduce economic in the liberalism in Latin America, solutions authoritarian manner of the Pinochet coup in Chile. Subsequently, US policy began to advocate liberal democratic forms of state as being more able to sustain the continuity of a for changes of government, the economic making regime while allowing less vulnerable to political coup.30 This, again, implied passive revolution. economy In these societies various forms of popular movements have taken root?trade as well as the left wing political parties, and the 'new social movements', unions, manifestations of 'people power' such as toppled the Marcos regime in the episodic or 'IMF riots' provoked by rising food and transport prices. There is Philippines liberal some evidence that, under the impact of structural adjustment, unions and social of earlier have pulled together despite their mutual action movements suspicions to support left wing political parties.31 However, and have worked groups led years social activists have focused more on local demands often obtained by the old by than on the broader aims of patterns of clientelism and compromise with authorities structures which are the concern of left wing political in social and economic left wing parties have, in turn, been weakened These nationally by the of civil society has of globalization ideology. Furthermore, promotion hegemony of neo-liberal economics as a way of been coopted by forces behind the propagation civil society, in its dual defusing and channelling potential protest.32 Consequently, a latent but not very fully and social activism, has form of class-based organizations change parties. The covert world, in the transformation. realized potential for social and political is rife in these form of organized crime, drug cartels and political corruption, is not matched of civil countries. The decline of state authority by a development
society.

on social and political to the impact of globalization The most open challenge come from a new type of revolutionary structures has the Zapatista movement, state of Chiapas that broke rebellion of the Mayan Indians in the southern Mexican out on New Year's day 1994. This was the day on which the North American Free came into effect, which symbolized the anti-globalization of the Trade Area message
29 30 and political L?szl? Andor, 'Economic transformation stability in East Central Europe', Security 27: 2 (June 1996). Dialogue, See William I. Robinson, US Intervention, and Hegemony Globalization, Promoting Polyarchy. case studies of the Philippines, Chile, Press, 1996) which contains University (Cambridge: Cambridge and the former Soviet bloc; also William I. Robinson, South Africa, Haiti, 'Globalization, Nicaragua,

in US foreign policy', Theory and Society, 25 (1996), the world system, and 'democracy promotion' pp. 615-65. 31 Judith Adler Hellman, 'The riddle of new social movements: who they are and what they do', in in Latin America L. Harris Sandor Halebsky and Richard (eds), Capital, Power, and Inequality Press, 1995). (Boulder, CO: Westview 32 12 above). Laura Macdonald, Civil Society, Supporting (see footnote

24

Robert W Cox

in different parts of the world have proclaimed their revolt. Indigenous peoples as social formations control of their ancestral lands. The distinctness demanding have gone beyond this to cultivate international support and attempt to Zapatistas the Mexican system. They have sought to transcend both the change political hierarchical of character of the rebellion in its initial phase and its ethnic base military a rallying force in civil society of all forces for in order to become support in other words to create the beginnings of a counterhegemonic democratic change,
bloc.33

Africa:

civil society

versus the state

and of there are even more extreme cases of state breakdown from the state. State structures inherited from colonial regimes people to begin with; yet the state controlled to local populations relationship than peasant agriculture and petty economic activity more substantial for control of the state was thus a struggle for a struggle political In Africa economic product the power holders

alienation of had no close access to any trading. The share of the

of the country, a product divided between foreign investors and in the state. There has been a history of resistance to this pattern. and attempts at social democratic Some social revolutionary movements experiments com to create political that were based on African authorities have endeavoured Samora Machel led by Amilcar Cabrai in Guinea-Bissau, life?movements munity in Tanzania, for example. However, in Mozambique, and Julius Nyerere obstacles, the success of these struggles for a more in origin, external impeded mainly politics as both the participant polity.34 The Cold War came to dominate African in African chose allies among the power-holders States and the Soviet Union United rule and states and armed them. This strengthened the tendency towards military states taking the form of kleptocracies?dictators with armed towards African the bands that served both as praetorian guards and as gangs who pillaged was a prime example. Zaire population. Mobutu's that African it is not to be wondered circumstances, people did not rulers. Furthermore, foreign capital proved to be equally readily identify with their to people's welfare. Foreign with the connivance of African hostile states, investors, the ecology upon which local people depend for their livelihood. The have damaged financial agencies international (IMF and World Bank) impose structural adjust of these countries. ment policies that have placed heavy burdens on the populations In these

1997. A sketch in Le Monde 'Le grand virage des zapatistes' January diplomatique, Najman, 'La 4e guerre is to be found in Sous-commandant the world view of the Zapatistas Marcos, a commenc?', 1997. Le Monde mondiale August diplomatique, 34 the leader who expounded in theory and practice Cabrai was a particularly articulate Amilcar for in revolutionary action and cultural change were essential that popular participation position out of imperialist the momentum of his to raise themselves domination. African Although peoples the historian movement assassination colonialism, stalled, following Cabral's by agents of Portuguese to make success in mobilizing their own history has left Africans thinks that Cabral's Basil Davidson The Search for Africa. to inspire a renewed movement. See Basil Davidson, its impact and example of History, Speeches speeches Culture, Politics House, 1994, esp. pp. 217^43); and Unity and Struggle. (New York: Random and Writings Review, 1979). Cabral's (New York and London: Monthly of Amilcar Cabrai to Gramsci's and writing have striking similarity thought.

33 Maurice

Civil society at the turn of the millennium

25

In consequence, have come to see the state and the international many Africans in a variety of self-help community institutions as their enemies and have organized to confront the daily problems of life, shunning any link to the state. Women groups as initiators and leaders in this movement. An Ethiopian have been prominent in Africa'.35 Similar movements exist in economist has called it 'the silent revolution
some other poor countries.

is a form of incipient civil society that has turned its back on the state. The it could develop into a force that would engage with question remains open whether the state to alter the state's character and become the foundation for a new form of democracy.36 participant This

Conclusions

and condition of civil society is very diverse, looked at on a world scale. to look at this diversity It is, nevertheless, lens of through the analytic tempting of relations of forces (PN, pp. 180-85). Civil society is Gramsci's conceptualization itself a field of power relations; and forces in civil society relate, in support or to powers in state and market. opposition, The first level in Gramsci's relation of forces, is the 'relation of social forces' by which he meant objective relations independent of human will brought about by the The nature level of development of the material forces of production. the effect of Through to post-Fordism and the passage in the from Fordism globalization on the one this has brought about a basic cleavage between, present day world, or those people who are integrated into the of globalization hand, the beneficiaries or world economy, and on the other hand, those who are disadvantaged within economic excluded precarious
35 Fantu

from

the world become

way, may

The latter would in a include some who, economy. intermittent adjuncts to the world economy and whose

in Africa: Debt, Development and Democracy Cheru, The Silent Revolution (Harare and London: Zed/Anvil The Search for Africa 34 above) has Press, 1989). Basil Davidson, (see footnote also referred to this phenomenon: 'One finds [in Africa] the striving of countless individuals and one should say self-defense?aimed in collectives towards new types of self-organization?perhaps one way or another at operating outside the bureaucratic centralism of the neocolonial state' (p. 290). 36 1992 edited by Ralph Miliband Basil Davidson, Africa: the politics of failure', Socialist Register and Leo Panitch the possibility that more participatory Press, 1992), envisaged (London: Merlin politics in Africa might develop within the framework of market but concluded rather economics, 'How far the developed world of multinational of power will bring concentrations pessimistically: itself to tolerate this devolutionary and its democratic is [a] politics of participation, implications, to which, at present, we do not have an answer' (p. 225). The fall of the Mobutu question regime in Zaire and its replacement not really test Davidson's of the Congo under Laurent-D?sir? Kabila did by the Democratic Republic Kabila's proposition. victory was achieved by military means with considerable and Rwandan military forces. The struggle seemed to take place support from Ugandan 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 for a new state. See e.g. Colette that could be the foundation le 'Comment Braeckman, participation seems more optimistic Za?re fut lib?r?' Le Monde July 1997. In other works, Davidson diplomatique, for the development the long range potential of civil society and 'the elaboration of a culture out of the fetters into which of drawing of the Africans the civilization it has fallen, and of a life and meaning in its multitudinous to its aspects and varieties, giving that civilization, appropriate The Search for Africa, pp. 261-2 34 above)). present tasks and destiny' (Basil Davidson, (see footnote about capable

26

Robert W. Cox for more stable affiliation and outright

so clear as the Marxian cleavage along lines between bourgeoisie and proletariat. The proletariat is divided now property some beneficiaries between of globalization and many disadvantaged. The petty some who would is also divided between with the world identify bourgeoisie or excluded in relation to it. Many and others who are disadvantaged economy to consumption in their relationship would need to be understood more (or people more or less rather than to production?the the inability to consume adequately) the inhabitants of shanty towns, welfare recipients, and permanently unemployed, students. The old production-related categories are not entirely superseded; but the of social change needs to scheme of categories of people relevant to the problematic be rethought. Gramsci's second level, which he called the relation of political forces, addresses In today's context, the question of consciousness. the challenge is to bridge the so as to the variety of groups disadvantaged differences among by globalization of the nature and consequences about a common understanding of globaliza bring the world economy to tion, and to devise a common strategy towards subordinating a regime of social equity. This means building a counterhegemonic historic bloc that in a long term war of the hegemonic formation of globalization could confront position. Gramsci's the role of strategic concepts are pertinent here, including particularly on local, Their task now is to be able to work simultaneously organic intellectuals. are considerable or poten in that the active regional and world levels. The obstacles on many to globalization is divided is opposition tial opposition issues. There their jobs in environmentally manual workers protecting destructive and to stop these industrial practices. industries and environmentalists polluting working in mature Other conflicts arise between manual workers industrial countries who in recently indus face downgrading and workers through global competition trializing countries or immigrant workers from poor countries who are perceived to be taking away their jobs. Still other conflicts arise from the claims by indigenous peoples for lands and control of resources that conflict with the aims of mining and and their workers. Also there is the issue between the claims of forestry corporations movements in employment for equity and the fears of precariously women's linked to these various groups face a intellectuals employed male workers. Organic between difficult and the immediate corporative instincts of these groups task of transcending or excluded groups, in to other disadvantaged the oppositions they engender shared vision of a desirable and feasible alternative order to achieve a commonly future and a strategy for joint action. They must at the same time do battle with the

thus waver between hope in despair of achieving it. antagonism This cleavage does not yield anything interests may

racist nationalism, authoritarian neo-fascism, right wing forces of anti-immigrant and nihilistic religious cults, which compete for the allegiance of people populism, and apathy and alienation the where social bonds have disintegrated has become
norm.

third level in the relation of forces was the relation of military forces, function which we may he divided into two parts: one, the technical military read as control of the repressive apparatus of a state; and the other, the politico or to the degree of coherence of a population, refers to the morale military, In the absence of high morale, among people. disintegration struggle against a Gramsci's which

Civil society at the turn of the millennium

27

dominant power over people, whether foreign or domestic, would be improbable. The condition that sustains an oppressive regime, Gramsci wrote, is a 'state of social of the . . .people, and the passivity of the majority among them' (PN, disintegration is the situation characteristic of the populations p. 183). This, in varying degrees, and passivity today. To overcome this social disintegration engulfed by globalization will require the creation of a vibrant civil society inspired by a strong spirit of in level and, by linkage with other strong communities solidarity at the community or global level. Upon such a basis of partici other countries, at the transnational new political authorities may in the long run be constructed at patory democracy national, regional and world levels. a vision and strategy is to shift from a One aspect in developing and synchronie mode of thinking to a predominantly space-oriented or dialectical mode of thinking. Oppositions and diachronic that in the immediate may be overcome the through attacking objective ensure the persistence of these oppositions. First among these subscribed predominantly time-oriented are apparently structures that is the doctrine

to by corporate capital and most governments, and propagated by the in the world economy intellectuals and media of the status quo, that competitiveness in the world is the ultimate criterion of policy. This is the primary form of alienation of a force created that stands over them by people today?the imagining that 'there is no alternative'. This contemporary deity will have to be proclaiming deconstructed to make way for an alternative vision of a world economy regulated in of social equity and non-violent resolution of conflict. the interest a counterhegemonic The other important aspect of creating bloc is revival of a in the mid 1970s and the subsequent spirit of solidarity. The crisis of capitalism bonds supremacy of the globalization dynamic has not only weakened psychological between people and states but also the level of trust among people themselves and for collective action. The result is an increase in cynicism, apathy their disposition and non-participation of people in politics and social action.37 Increasingly politics are not about choices concerning the future of society but rather about choices sets of would-be managers of the status quo, many of whom are among competing to think of, let tainted by corruption and most of whom are professedly incompetent alone pursue, an alternative.38 The political space abandoned by people has been to the financing readily taken up by the covert world, which has become functional in a substantial of established systems and is involved part of world political
markets.

Civil society has become the crucial battleground for recovering citizen control of towards fundamental public life. It seems that very little can be accomplished change on the through the state system as it now exists. That system might be reconstructed
37 The American Robert D. Putnam has suggested that civil society in the United States has sociologist once noted by de Tocqueville as its salient characteristic. lost much of the spirit of association He sees this as being replaced by non-participation or individualizing in group activities and a privatizing 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: made America's declining a study about Democracy social social Work. Journal of Democracy, 6: 1 (January 1995). The same author has and Raffaella Y Nanetti, capital in Italy: Putnam with Robert Leonardi in Civic Traditions Modern Princeton Press, Italy (Princeton: University capital', essay by Jean-Marie Gu?henno, La fin de la d?mocratie (Paris:

Making 38

1993). the brilliant See, for example, Flammarion, 1993).

28

Robert W Cox

civil society which could only come about through a long basis of a reinvigorated a two-track term war of position. Meanwhile, strategy for the Left seems appro in electoral politics and industrial action as a first, continued participation priate: means resistance against the further onslaught of globalization; of defensive and more of the primary but ultimately importantly, pursuit secondly, goal of a spirit of association in civil society together with a continuing effort resurrecting intellectuals of social forces to think through by the organic alternative social order at local, regional and global levels. and act towards an

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