Project-Think and the Fragmentation and Defragmentation of Civil Society in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110574
Author(s):  
Gizem Zencirci ◽  
Catherine E. Herrold
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discrete Groups ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Civic Organizations ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Perceived Impacts

By drawing from authors’ fieldwork in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey, this article critically examines perceptions of project-think among civic organizations in the Middle East. As a managerial rationality, project-think has four key components: (a) a prioritization of discrete needs and discrete groups, (b) an orientation toward funding, (c) a focus on short-term and measurable results, and (d) the positioning of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as career ladders. Through unpacking these four components, we find that project-think is perceived to contribute to the fragmentation of civil society by fracturing social issues, dividing the NGO sector, isolating organizational energy, and complicating relations between groups. Simultaneously, we demonstrate that, civic actors use various strategies to circumvent the perceived impacts of fragmentation. By mapping these intertwined meanings and experiences of fragmentation and defragmentation, this study contributes to debates concerning the political effects of managerialism among civil society in the Global South.

Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua

2003 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Kampwirth
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Foreign Born

This article analyzes the campaign of Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Alemán (1997–2002) against organized competitors, what has been called his war against the nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. Alemán's attacks on the NGO sector are shown to be consistent with the logic of the new populism in Latin America. At the same time, his choice of targets—prominent NGO figures who were often foreign-born and always female—must be explained with reference to the specifics of Nicaraguan civil society and its evolving relationship with the political parties. This study argues that by choosing to respond to the challenges of international neoliberalism and local feminism through the anti-NGO campaign, Alemán helped to weaken democracy in Nicaragua.

Justice and Tyranny, Law and the State in the Middle East

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-388
Author(s):  
Charles Lindholm
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Civic Organizations ◽  
Rational Organization

In his influential work, Max Weber argued that the Middle East was fatally hampered in the development of a modern civil society by the existence of arbitrary Qadi justice, based on the personalized decisions of a judiciary reliant only on case law for precedent and lacking any form of rational organization. This individualistic judicial structure (or lack of structure) allowed authoritarian regimes to subvert the courts for their own purposes, destroying the possibility of the development of an autonomous citizenry; meanwhile, in Europe the evolution of a rationally codified legal system acted as a check on governmental tyranny and provided a space for the evolution of independent civic organizations.

scholarly journals Civil society, Islamism and democratisation: the case of Morocco

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Cavatorta
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Potential Force ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Political Learning

The positive role that an active civil society plays in processes of democratisation is often highlighted in the literature. However, when it comes to the Middle East and North Africa, such activism is considered to be detrimental to democratisation because the predominant role is played by Islamist groups. The explanation for this rests with the perceived ‘uncivil’ and undemocratic Islamist ethos of such groups. This paper challenges this assumption and argues that Islamist associations can be a potential force for democratisation for three reasons. First, they are capable of political learning; secondly, they generate secular civil society activism as a response to their activities, increasing the number of actors in the political and social system; and finally, they can cooperate with other civil society groups on a number of issues, given that they are all subject to the same authoritarian constraints. The paper focuses in particular on the case of Morocco and the Islamist group Jamiat al-Adl wal-Ihsan.

6. The Puzzle of Political Reform in the Middle East

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-157
Author(s):  
Augustus Richard Norton
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter assesses the critical issue of political reform in the Middle East. The Arab world has been slow to respond to the global processes of democratization. The chapter then highlights the political economy of states, the persistence of conflict, regime type, and the ambiguity over the relationship between democracy and Islam. This relationship is not necessarily a contradictory one. Islamic discourse is marked by participation and diversity rather than by rigidity and intolerance. Further, as the Arab Spring has illustrated, civil society is vibrant and growing in many states across the region. Meanwhile, responses from the West to political reform have been lukewarm, with stability and regional alliances privileged over democracy. The evidence from the region, even before the Arab uprisings, is that peoples want better and more representative government, even if they remain unclear as to what type of government that should be.

6. The Puzzle of Political Reform in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustus Richard Norton
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Arab States ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the issue of political reform in the Middle East. More specifically, it considers the enormous challenges that face proponents of political reform in the region. To this end, the chapter focuses on the legacies of state formation that shape the contemporary political systems, as well as the changing economic and social parameters of societies in today’s Middle East. After explaining the democracy deficit in the Middle East, the chapter shows that the Arab states have been slow to respond to the global processes of democratization. It also explores the political economy of Arab states, the persistence of conflict, regime type, and the ambiguity over the relationship between democracy and Islam. Finally, it analyses the Arab Spring as evidence of the vibrancy and growth of civil society in many states across the region.

The Kurdish Question Then and Now

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Samir Amin
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Kurdish Question

The political chaos that has recently dominated the scene in the Middle East is expressed, among other ways, by the violent resurgence of the Kurdish question. How can we analyze, in these new conditions, the scope of the claims of the Kurds—autonomy, independence, unity? And can we deduce from analysis that this claim must be supported by all democratic and progressive forces, in the region and in the world?… Debates on the subject produce great confusion. This is because most contemporary actors and observers rally around a non-historical vision of this and related issues.… I will offer a counterpoint to this transhistorical vision of social issues and "rights," through which the social movements of the past and present express their demands. In particular, I will attribute paramount importance to the divide that separates the thriving of the modern capitalist world from past worlds.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Who Gives, Who Receives, and Who Wins?

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Brown ◽  
J. Christopher Brown ◽  
Scott W. Desposato
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Political Change ◽  
International Aid ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Support ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Political Impact

How does international support for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) lead to political change in the developing world? Massive amounts of domestic government spending and international aid are now distributed through NGOs instead of state bureaucracies. Recent scholarship suggests that this decentralization of developmental aid to NGOs has unintended political effects on recipient communities, but the mechanisms driving political effects are unclear. In this article, the authors test whether NGO type affects the results of NGO aid, comparing the political impact of politicized and nonpoliticized NGOs. They do not find any difference between politicized and nonpoliticized NGOs. The results imply that to create political change, ideological predispositions held by individual NGOs are less important than is their ability to raise the level of social capital and civil society. Simply providing the infrastructure necessary to develop social capital and civil society can have a measurable political impact.

Evaluating the Political Effects of Anti-slavery and Anti-trafficking Activism

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-78
Author(s):  
Joel Quirk
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Advocacy Networks ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Forced Labour

This Chapter considers ‘what happens next’ once information has been collected. This in turn means focusing upon political activism. Drawing upon ideas and insights from existing works on social movements and advocacy networks, I consider some of the main ways in which ‘success’ or ‘progress’ have been – and, I would argue, should be – evaluated in relation to several recent high-profile forms of political activism targeting slavery, trafficking and forced labour. The principle argument that emerges from this analysis is that anti-slavery and anti-trafficking need to be regarded as one component of broader portfolio of practices, interests and ideologies, rather than a singular issue or civil society cause which is assumed to enjoy a separate and elevated humanitarian or bipartisan political status. There is consequentially a pressing need for researchers to made further efforts to help understand and refine the ways in which patterns of political activism and mobilisation can strategically target the underlying sources and conditions of forced labour, vulnerability and marginalisation.

scholarly journals Social Welfare Voluntarism in Greece: a Fall before the Rise?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Periklis Polyzoidis
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Voluntary Activity ◽  
Main Activity ◽  
The Church

<p>Voluntarism remains globally important<br />for many social issues and one of them<br />is social cohesion. Historically, Greece’s<br />Civil Society was weak and dependent on<br />the political parties. Voluntarism is totally<br />absent from the Greek public sector and<br />hardly developed within the Church. The<br />main voluntary activity is channeled through<br />Voluntary Organizations. This article focuses<br />on formal, private, non-profi t distributing,<br />self-governing voluntary organizations<br />whose main activity is in the fi eld of social<br />protection. We argue that the sector is<br />small and weak and has not succeeded in<br />adapting itself to the changing environment.<br />Membership declines and all indicators<br />show that the sector will shrivel further in<br />the future.</p>

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