Civil Society and the Fault Lines of Global Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-217
Author(s):  
Fayyaz Baqir
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Democracy ◽  
Fault Lines

scholarly journals The Battle for Post-Habsburg Trieste/Trst: State Transition, Social Unrest, and Political Radicalism (1918–23)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Marco Bresciani
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
World War I ◽  
State Transition ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Multiple Cycles ◽  
Fault Lines ◽  
Political Radicalism

Abstract In spite of the recent transnational turn, there continues to be a considerable gap between Fascist studies and the new approaches to the transitions, imperial collapses, and legacies of post–World War I Europe. This article posits itself at the crossroads between fascist studies, Habsburg studies, and scholarship on post-1918 violence. In this regard, the difficulties of the state transition, the subsequent social unrest, and the ascent of new forms of political radicalism in post-Habsburg Trieste are a case in point. Rather than focusing on the “national strife” between “Italians” and “Slavs,” this article will concentrate on the unstable local relations between state and civil society, which led to multiple cycles of conflict and crisis. One of the arguments it makes is that in post-1918 Trieste, where the different nationalist groups contended for a space characterized by multiple loyalties and allegiances, Fascists claimed to be the movement of the “true Italians,” identified with the Fascists and their sympathizers. Accordingly, while targeting the alleged enemies of the “Italian nation” (defined as “Bolsheviks,” “Austrophiles,” and “Slavs”), they aimed to polarize the Italian-speaking community along different political fault lines to reconfigure relations between the state and civil society.

scholarly journals The Dialectic of Civil and Uncivil Society—Fragility, Fault Lines, and Countervailing Forces

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz-Dieter Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Associational Life ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Causal Necessity ◽  
Fault Lines

AbstractIn light of the experience of the past three decades—1989 to 2020—the civil society appears as a fragile institution that seems capable of giving rise to the overthrow of dictators as well as to their ready installation; to engender movements of solidarity and inclusion as well as of hatred and violence. To understand what allows these different tendencies to arise from within the civil society requires that we move past a pre-occupation with the structural and socio-economic dimension of the civil society and recover a conception of the civil society as an inherently moral institution. In this regard, the tradition of social analysis pioneered by Alexis de Tocqueville remains singularly instructive. The cultivation of civility, we can learn, is not an automatic by-product of tamed markets, limited government, and vibrant associational life—necessary and important though these are. The dispositions needed to maintain the civil society do not arise with causal necessity even where associations flourish, markets are tamed, and institutions are well-designed. By facing more squarely the deep moral fault-lines of the civil society we can develop a keener sense of the countervailing forces needed to keep the project of the civil society on track.

Building Global Democracy? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-345
Author(s):  
Lars Leer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Global Democracy

The Democratization of Global Governance through Civil Society Actors and the Challenge from Political Equality

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 815-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Erman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Democracy ◽  
Transnational Civil Society ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Accessible Form

In the theoretical literature on global democracy, the influential transmission belt model depicts transnational civil society as a transmission belt between the public space and the empowered space (decision-making loci), assuming that civil society actors contribute to the democratization of global governance by transmitting peoples’ preferences from the public space to the empowered space through involvement in the political decision-making. In this article, two claims are made. First, I argue that the transmission belt model fails because insofar as civil society has formalized influence in the decision-making, it is illegitimate, and insofar as it has informal influence, it is legitimate, but civil society’s special status as transmitter is dissolved. Second, I argue that civil society is better understood as a transmission belt, not between the public space and the empowered space, but between the private space (lifeworld) and the public space. It is here that civil society is essential for democracy, with its unique capacity to stay attuned to concerns in the lifeworld and to communicate those in a publically accessible form.

Civil society and the problem of global democracy

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Goodhart
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Democracy

When Civil Society Promotion Fails State-Building: The Inevitable Fault-Lines in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

2017 ◽  
pp. 119-129
Author(s):  
Julie Mertus ◽  
Tazreena Sajjad
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
State Building ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Fault Lines

Civil society and global democracy

2012 ◽  
pp. 210-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Tallberg ◽  
Anders Uhlin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Democracy

Experiments in global democracy: The cases of UNITAID and the FAO Committee on World Food Security

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS FRAUNDORFER
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Food ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Global Democracy ◽  
State Actors ◽  
World Food Security

AbstractA growing literature explores how global governance mechanisms can be made more effective and democratic to tackle trans-boundary development challenges like global epidemics, global poverty or climate change. The international system today is characterized by an increasing influence of non-state actors gradually undermining the prominent role of the state. Considering this new reality, the focus of analysis has increasingly shifted towards examining the fundamental role of non-state actors, in particular from civil society, in building democratic global governance mechanisms. The literature still says little about joint governance efforts of both state and non-state actors to promote democracy on the global level. This article examines two global governance mechanisms, UNITAID and the FAO Committee on World Food Security, which were created by the joint action of state and non-state actors to tackle trans-boundary development challenges. Departing from the ideal type of democratic polycentrism this article argues that both mechanisms can be seen as encouraging experiments in global democracy. This analysis attempts to show that democratic polycentrism may prove to be a useful theoretical blueprint for pursuing more democratic global governance mechanisms and that more democracy on the global level depends on the joint activities of democratic states and civil society actors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document