CIVIL SOCIETY, TRIBAL PROCESS, AND CHANGE IN JORDAN: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Antoun

In the 1990s, the concept of civil society has inspired a variety of publications by Western scholars studying the Middle East and has become the rallying cry for representatives of Western governments interested in promoting democracy in the region. The great majority of such publications and government promotions assume that the Middle East does not have, or has only in very weakly developed forms, the institutions that constitute a civil society. By “civil institutions” they mean such things as labor unions, political parties, independent newspapers and universities, and, most important, voluntary associations—for example, human-rights organizations, professional associations, charitable organizations, and non-governmental organizations.1 Discounted in this discussion is the possibility that the Middle East has its own resilient civil institutions undergoing their own transformations in the global society at the end of the century. In Jordan, this gigantic oversight reflects a misunderstanding of what “tribal” institutions are and do.

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 595-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Moore ◽  
Zenzo Moyo

Research on NGOs in rural Zimbabwe suggests that ideas of automatic opposition between ‘civil society’ and/or non-governmental organizations and authoritarian states are too simple. Rather, relations between state and non-state organizations such as those referenced in this article, in the rural district of Mangwe about 200 kilometres south-west of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo, are symbiotic. This contrasts with urban areas where political histories have led to more contested state-civil society relations in the last two decades, during which social movements with a degree of counter-hegemonic (or counter-regime) aspirations were allied with many NGOs and opposition political parties. Gramsci’s idea of ‘rural intellectuals’ could complement the widely used notion of ‘organic intellectuals’ to examine the members of the intelligentsia appearing to be at one with subordinate groups in the countryside and at odds with the state. Likewise state workers distant from the centre and close to their class peers in NGOs as well as their ‘subjects’ may operate with autonomy from their masters in ruling parties and states to assist, rather than repress, citizens and also to co-operate with NGO workers. This research indicates that discerning how hegemony works across whole state-society complexes is more complicated than usually perceived, given the many regional variations therein.


2021 ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Viktoriia Kravchenko ◽  
◽  
Yuliia Slobodianyk ◽  

In Ukraine, citizens have created a large number of civil society institutions (public organizations, charitable organizations, trade unions). The activity of public organizations plays a significant role in the processes taking place in society, and therefore necessitates checking (audit) the financial and economic aspects of its implementation. The article describes the essence of non-governmental organizations, considers the factors that shape the need to draw the attention of scientists to the activities of non-governmental organizations, namely: the growing number of non-governmental organizations in Ukraine in recent years and the income of the most prominent NGOs in 2020. The peculiarities of the audit of non-governmental organizations are determined, which consist of separating a particular type of audit services, typical for different grantees – audit of grant Projects. In addition, the grounds for conducting a general audit in NGOs are highlighted – in contrast to the typical practice for business, not only the legislative requirements can push non-governmental organizations to wish to conduct an audit of financial statements. Much attention is paid to the issues of transparency and accountability of organizations. The risks that auditors should take into account during the audit of non-governmental organizations and typical errors that may occur during the audit of NGOs are also considered. Particular attention is paid to procurement procedures and possible fraudulent schemes that may arise on the basis of these procedures. At the same time, examples of the direct influence of donors on the activities of non-governmental organizations and, as a consequence, on the audit of NGOs are given. The challenges faced by auditors when working with NGOs and barriers to market entry are highlighted.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-98
Author(s):  
Mahmut Ulas Gozutok

Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) play a key role for providing a platform for citizens to raise their discontents in democratic settings. NGO activities for encouraging democratic public engagement pose no threats against stability in consolidated democratic regimes with effectively functioning political parties. On the other hand, they can be acontentious issue in countries with shaky foundations of democracy. In fact, Huntington mainly champions in one of his most widely cited works by the civil society literature the idea that associations of social capital such as civil society can have detrimental repercussions on stability and order in infantile democratic regimes since political parties in such contexts are argued to be ill‐equipped to handle challenges brought bymodernization. On the other hand, primary elements of social capital (i.e.civil society) are acknowledged to be the prerequisites for effectivefunctioning of democracies.Keywords: NGOs, democracy, civil society, social capital


Sociologija ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Vukovic

In this article, I analyze the role of professionals (as part of the middle classes) and their communities in fostering reforms within the fields of higher education and social protection, and working towards, and supporting, the development of civil society. The analysis is based on the series of studies that explored lawmaking and policy-making processes in the fields of law, employment, social protection, rural development, tax policies and civil society development. The analysis of the work of professional communities, and the course of changes in these fields, indicates that policy networks had a major impact on the public policymaking process. These networks bring together typical representatives of the middle class: professionals, government officials, professional associations, representatives of modern non-governmental organizations, etc. The interests, upon which these networks were based, can be classified into three groups: (1) control of conditions of reproduction of the profession, (2) control of public resources in a given system (which includes, but is not limited to, control of the funding channels) and (3) control of conditions of reproduction of a given system. All these interests have a clear redistributive character, are -in general - focused on the control of public resources and have created an alliance between the middle classes and the elite. Middle classes have participated in the process of making laws and public policies in a way that has deepened the political inequalities, and to phenomena which, by analogy with the process of state capture by the elite, can be recognized as the capture of resources by the middle classes. The analysis points to an important aspect of sluggish social reforms: the lack of enthusiasm among middle classes and professional elite in fostering deep social change which is due to their ideological and redistributive alliances and strategies of ?resources capturing.?


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apostolos G. Papadopoulos ◽  
Christos Chalkias ◽  
Loukia-Maria Fratsea

The paper explores the challenges faced today, in a context of severe economic crisis, by immigrant associations (ΙΜΑs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Greece. The data analysed here was collected between October 2009 and February 2010 and incorporates references to all recorded migration-related social actors operating in Greece. The paper takes into account such indicators as legal form, objectives, financial capacity and geographical range of activity, concluding with a typology of civil society actors dealing with migration issues. This study aims at informing the migration policymaking and migrant integration processes. By a spatial hot-spot clustering of IMAs and NGOs, we also illustrate the concentration patterns of civil society actors in Greece.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Adrian Ruprecht

Abstract This article explores the global spread of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement to colonial India. By looking at the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–78) and the intense public ferment the events in the Balkans created in Britain, Switzerland, Russia and India, this article illustrates how humanitarian ideas and practices, as well as institutional arrangements for the care for wounded soldiers, were appropriated and shared amongst the different religious internationals and pan-movements from the late 1870s onwards. The Great Eastern Crisis, this article contends, marks a global humanitarian moment. It transformed the initially mainly European and Christian Red Cross into a truly global movement that included non-sovereign colonial India and the Islamic religious international. Far from just being at the receiving end, non-European peoples were crucial in creating global and transnational humanitarianism, global civil society and the world of non-governmental organizations during the last third of the nineteenth century.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yana Gorokhovskaia

Conventional wisdom holds that civil society is a sphere of activity separate from the state and the private realm. Due to a combination of historical, developmental and institutional factors, Russian civil society today is dominated by the state. While not all interactions with the state are seen as harmful, scholars acknowledge that most politically oriented or oppositional non-governmental organizations today face difficult conditions in Russia. In response to the restrictions on civil society and the unresponsive nature of Russia’s hybrid authoritarian regime, some civil society actors in Moscow have made the transition into organized politics at the local level. This transition was motivated by their desire to solve local problems and was facilitated by independent electoral initiatives which provided timely training and support for opposition political candidates running in municipal elections. Once elected, these activists turned municipal deputies are able to perform some of the functions traditionally ascribed to civil society, including enforcing greater accountability and transparency from the state and defending the interest of citizens.


Author(s):  
Hannah Smidt ◽  
Dominic Perera ◽  
Neil J. Mitchell ◽  
Kristin M. Bakke

Abstract International ‘naming and shaming’ campaigns rely on domestic civil society organizations (CSOs) for information on local human rights conditions. To stop this flow of information, some governments restrict CSOs, for example by limiting their access to funding. Do such restrictions reduce international naming and shaming campaigns that rely on information from domestic CSOs? This article argues that on the one hand, restrictions may reduce CSOs’ ability and motives to monitor local abuses. On the other hand, these organizations may mobilize against restrictions and find new ways of delivering information on human rights violations to international publics. Using a cross-national dataset and in-depth evidence from Egypt, the study finds that low numbers of restrictions trigger shaming by international non-governmental organizations. Yet once governments impose multiple types of restrictions, it becomes harder for CSOs to adapt, resulting in fewer international shaming campaigns.


Author(s):  
Андрій Матвійчук

Сформульовано визначення поняття «міжнародна неурядова організація» (МНУО) як організоване об'єднання представників громадськості різних країн, створене відповідно до національного законодавства для досягнення цілей і завдань розвитку громадянського суспільства й міжнародних відносин, що діє відповідно до загальновизнаних принципів Уставу ООН і норм міжнародного права на території двох і більше держав і володіє консультативним статусом. З’ясовано, що видовими ознаками, які містять у собі: цілі й завдання, характер діяльності, форму організації, наявність консультативного статусу тощо визначається відмінність міжнародної НУО від інших суб'єктів міжнародних відносин. Такі родові ознаки (як от: факт об'єднання людей, наявність постійних органів управління, Статуту тощо) є загальними для всього класу (роду) організацій. Обгрунтовано, що МНУО як учасник міжнародних відносин, є суб'єктом міжнародного права, однак їх правосуб'єктність має функціональний характер, тобто обмежений її консультативним статусом. Продемонстровано, що МНУО є неофіційною сполучною ланкою між національними урядами й міжнародним співтовариством, беруть активну участь у розробці міжнародних стандартів, методів, моделей і співвідносять їхню національну значимість з міжнародно-правовою. Зазначається, що у національному законодавстві України спостерігається тенденція оптимальної розробки питань, що стосуються правового статусу МНУО з огляду на міжнародні принципи й стандарти. Водночас, не можна йти шляхом повного їхнього копіювання, оскільки держава, ґрунтуючись на своєму суспільно-історичному досвіді, досвіді функціонування правової системи, на існуючих суспільних відносинах і своїх національних інтересах, сама має право визначати правовий статус МНУО. Пропонується у змінах до закону «Про неурядові організації» відобразити основну ідею, яка полягає в тому, що неурядові організації є ядром громадянського суспільства, найважливішим фактором розвитку демократичної держави й міжнародних відносин, засобом реалізації громадянами своїх прав і свобод. Matviichuk Andriy V. Activities of international nongovernmental organizations in the legislative and legal space of Ukraine The definition of the concept of "international non-governmental organization" (international NGO) as an organized association of representatives of the public of different countries, formulated in accordance with the national legislation for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the development of civil society and international relations acting in accordance with the generally recognized principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international law on the territory of two or more states and has consultative status. It was found out that the specific features that include: goals and objectives, the nature of activity, the form of organization, the presence of consultative status, etc., is determined by the distinction of the international NGO from other subjects of international relations. Such generic attributes (such as the fact of association of people, the presence of permanent bodies of government, the Statute, etc.) are common to the entire class (kind of) organizations. It is substantiated that international NGO as a participant in international relations is a subject of international law, but their legal personality is functional, that is, limited by its consultative status. It has been demonstrated that the international NGO is an informal link between national governments and the international community and is actively involved in the development of international standards, methods, models and their national relevance with international legal law. It is noted that in the national legislation of Ukraine there is a tendency for the optimal development of issues related to the legal status of the international NGO, taking into account international principles and standards. At the same time, it is impossible to go through the full copying of them, since the state, on the basis of its socio-historical experience, the experience of functioning of the legal system, in existing social relations and its national interests, has the right to determine the legal status of the Ministry of the Interior. The proposed amendments to the law "On Non-Governmental Organizations" reflect the basic idea that non-governmental organizations are the core of civil society, the most important factor in the development of a democratic state and international relations, as a means of citizens' realization of their rights and freedoms.


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