Civil Society, Social Capital and Governance: Liberal Policy Agendas and Indigenous Civil Society: the Fa'asamoa as a Case Study

<p>The funding of civil society has become a key aspect of the governance agenda for international aid. This arises out of a number of theories linking civil society to better governance through the leveraging of social capital. These theories find their genesis in a distinctly liberal body of work that has drawn its findings from Western historical experience. In particular, the work of Robert Putnam and many like him in the 1990's draws its inspiration from Alexis d'Tocqueville's observations of democratic life in the early nineteenth century United States. Here, civic associational, according to Tocqueville, played a key part in the vibrant democratic spirit of the USA. Putnam's own findings, on the difference between governance outcomes in Southern and Northern Italy, mirror those of Tocqueville. Although the formulations of civil society and social capital inherent in this liberal tradition are but one among many theories, they are the ones that have influenced the international donors and the allocation of development assistance money has reflected this. Civil society funding generally goes to ideal types of organisations that most resemble a Western conception of civil society. In particular, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's) have proliferated to take advantage of this. This may well be overlooking many key forms of civil society that already exist in developing countries. A liberal reading of civil society that focuses on the associative values of civil society organisations would miss groups that are characterised more by kin, ethnicity or tribal ties. The fa'asamoa (or 'Samoan way') is an example of just such an institution that may be viewed as too traditional and backward looking by liberal theory, but upon reflection performs many of the key roles ascribed to civil society including as an important provider of social capital. It could be that donors concerned with good governance would do better to further engage with traditional institutions such as the fa'asamoa, than to simply create a new class of civil society, dominated by NGO's over the top of existing social structures.</p>

Civil Society, Social Capital and Governance: Liberal Policy Agendas and Indigenous Civil Society: the Fa'asamoa as a Case Study

<p>The funding of civil society has become a key aspect of the governance agenda for international aid. This arises out of a number of theories linking civil society to better governance through the leveraging of social capital. These theories find their genesis in a distinctly liberal body of work that has drawn its findings from Western historical experience. In particular, the work of Robert Putnam and many like him in the 1990's draws its inspiration from Alexis d'Tocqueville's observations of democratic life in the early nineteenth century United States. Here, civic associational, according to Tocqueville, played a key part in the vibrant democratic spirit of the USA. Putnam's own findings, on the difference between governance outcomes in Southern and Northern Italy, mirror those of Tocqueville. Although the formulations of civil society and social capital inherent in this liberal tradition are but one among many theories, they are the ones that have influenced the international donors and the allocation of development assistance money has reflected this. Civil society funding generally goes to ideal types of organisations that most resemble a Western conception of civil society. In particular, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's) have proliferated to take advantage of this. This may well be overlooking many key forms of civil society that already exist in developing countries. A liberal reading of civil society that focuses on the associative values of civil society organisations would miss groups that are characterised more by kin, ethnicity or tribal ties. The fa'asamoa (or 'Samoan way') is an example of just such an institution that may be viewed as too traditional and backward looking by liberal theory, but upon reflection performs many of the key roles ascribed to civil society including as an important provider of social capital. It could be that donors concerned with good governance would do better to further engage with traditional institutions such as the fa'asamoa, than to simply create a new class of civil society, dominated by NGO's over the top of existing social structures.</p>

Sharia-Based Regional Regulations in the Indonesian National Law System

This study aimed to explain the existence of sharia-based regional regulations and discuss the form of legal system regulation of sharia-based regional regulations in Indonesia. After the reformation, changes in the legal system in Indonesia began, especially the change from a centralized pattern to a decentralized one and the granting of regional autonomy authority, this was marked by the issuance of regional regulations based on the needs of each region. The next problem is the emergence of the desire to establish sharia-based regional regulations such as in Aceh, South Sulawesi, and West Java which invites legal discourse on the legal system in Indonesia. This study used a qualitative method with a normative legal approach. The subjects of this study were the namely elements of the Central and Regional Government, and Members of the DPRD. In addition, information was also collected from scholars, academics, and legal practitioners. The research procedure was carried out in four steps: observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The data were analyzed using an inductive model. The research findings showed that; first, the implementation of post-reform Islamic Shari'a cannot be separated from the increase in democratic life in Indonesia. Second, the application of Islamic Shari'a is the desire of the community as the foundation and order of social, national, and religious life. Third, the application of sharia-based regional regulations in addition to being elite political capital is also part of increasing identity and cultural revival and social life of the community.

Conclusion

Social media can contribute to the quality of democratic life by expanding the scope of citizens’ political participation and broadening the pool of participants. However, the relationship between political experiences on social media and political participation is not so strong as to justify unmitigated enthusiasm. Social media cannot and will not “save democracy” from citizens’ political apathy and distrust. While political experiences on social media do not disproportionately stimulate participation among ideologically extremist citizens, nor among those who voted for populist political actors, treating all forms of participation as equally desirable obscures important nuances that are key to evaluating social media’s contribution to democracy. Still, social media can be part of the solution to at least two important democratic ills—citizens’ disconnection from politics and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent.

Learning Model Based On Democratic Life

Our research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the democracy and human rights course taught with a “Learning Model Based on Democratic Life.” The study was conducted with an action research design. The research study group, determined using purposeful sampling, consisted of 10 students taking a Democracy and Human Rights course at a state university in Turkey. Data were collected using “Process Evaluation Forms” and “Student Letters.” Content analysis was used in the analysis of the data. We concluded that the students thought the Learning Model Based on Democratic Life supported their participation, was efficient and interesting, contributed to the formation of a democratic classroom environment, and enabled them to learn democracy in democratic ways.

Analysis of Community and Local Politics The Challenge of the Horizontal Conflict (A Case Study in Kampar Riau, A Constructive Critical Thinking from the Perspective of Political Anthropology)

This paper wants to critically explain constructively from the perspective of political anthropology, namely one thought on one of the social realities that develop in society Kampar Riau. Society is a group of people who live in one area for a certain period of time, who have emotional attachments and have a common goal. In that context, it is not uncommon for people to incarnate themselves into various situations, including in terms of politics and society. The phenomenon of folklore and local politics is a form of democratic life that is guaranteed by the laws of the Indonesian state. Everyone has their own life history. Talking about humans would be tantamount to talking about who is the owner and creator of all cultures. Humans create their experiences since childhood in the environment in which they were born. Community phenomenon is one of the oldest that characterizes a person's attitude, behavior pattern, which consciously or unconsciously will be incarnated in the long process of his life wherever that person takes part as an adult, such as taking part in an organization, company, or in a certain political party.

Rethinking Public Administration through Managers as Leaders

Rethinking public administration helps to drive public managers as agents of change who assume behaviours coherently with a leadership identity. Public administration is rediscovering the sustainability as a key source and goal for strategic and organisational change by promoting the organisational dimension that relies on enhancing the quality of people as human resources, strengthening both the public manager as a leader and public servants as employees who are committed and motivated to public service. Managers as leaders help to drive public administration as an organisation which is able to proceed towards future as a sustainable public organisation which develops the quality of human capital and improves performances, supports public trust and enhances democratic life. Rediscovering the organisational dimension helps to develop the leadership as identity and source for ethical and transformational behaviours of a leader, and enables public managers to assume coherent values, attitudes and behaviours developing the leadership as central identity. Today, driving public administration requires effective public managers who are able to behave as ethical and transformational leaders who motivate, support and drive the employees at work.

The Democratic Grotesque

How do we understand the presence of the grotesque in negotiations of democratic life after a revolution? At the peak of procedural democratic consolidation, carnivalesque revelries in Tunisia became the object of public aporia and repugnance. The dissimilar interpretations of these revelries across generations evince an agonistic process of prizing open both the parameters of nationhood and democratic ideals within existing social relations. The concept of the ‘democratic grotesque’ captures the sensorial and affective ways Tunisian citizens negotiate the affordances and limitations of democracy in the post-revolutionary nation. The democratic grotesque has the double potential to revise intellectual and public understandings of democratic dispositions that emanate from liberal democracy and to blur the boundaries between revolution and democracy.

The construction of youth political culture Social representations of high school students from the “Eastern” region of CDMX

The social representations that high school students in the "eastern" region of Mexico City construct of civic culture, political culture, and power relations in daily coexistence, are limited and restricted to legal citizenship, because the principles and values ​​of democracy have not been founded on the basis of a democratic political culture, to build full citizenship from childhood, generating spaces for reflection and listening back and forth, but above all, living a democratic life that enhances power -do, over power-over others. Las representaciones sociales que los estudiantes de bachillerato de la región "oriente" de la Ciudad de México construyen sobre la cultura cívica, la cultura política y las relaciones de poder en la convivencia cotidiana, son limitadas y restringidas a la ciudadanía legal, porque no se han fundamentado los principios y valores de la democracia a partir de una cultura política democrática, para construir una ciudadanía plena desde la infancia, generando espacios de reflexión y escucha de ida y vuelta, pero sobre todo, viviendo una vida democrática que potencie el poder-hacer, sobre el poder-sobre los demás.

Engaging with Dewey’s Valuation in Religious Education to Enhance Children’s Spirituality for Democratic Life

In this paper, we want to address how the educative growth of children’s spirituality within religious education can be better understood through Dewey’s theory of valuation. We would like to draw attention to the link between an education for authentic spirituality and the pursuit of a genuine democratic life, because education, even religious education, is always political. In doing so, we point to the urgency and importance of fostering spiritual education for children in the face of the current rise of authoritarianism throughout the world and the demise of authentic democratic life. In order for genuine democracies to survive and thrive, their citizens must be educated. Unlike indoctrination and propaganda, which control populations through manufacturing public opinion by which individuals are compelled to comply to an officially approved consensus, education is emancipatory by offering opportunity for dissensus. Emancipatory education enables individual citizens to initiate and participate in activities at the grass-roots level that pursue public and global goods, without waiting to be led by various authorities. Such an educated way of being, which is essential for democratic life, requires young people to be educated spiritually so that they are able to transcend the pressures to conform to public consensus and the will of authoritarianism, and instead to actively live their spirituality by undertaking activities that pursue the good, even when such activities are deemed to dissent from public opinion.