Extracts - civil society and change

Many civil society organizations see themselves as ‘change agents’. Often their work is painstaking and almost invisible, supporting poor people as they organise to demand their rights, pushing the authorities for grassroots improvements such as street lighting, paved roads, schools, or clinics, or providing such services themselves, along with public education programs on everything from hand washing to labor rights.

However, in recent years, civil society’s most prominent role, at least as reflected in the global media, has been in helping to install elected governments in place of authoritarian regimes. Since the 1980s, successive waves of civil society protest have contributed to the overthrow of military governments across Latin America, the downfall of communist and authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the removal of dictators in the Philippines and Indonesia, and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

According to Freedom House, a US government-funded foundation, civic resistance has been a key factor driving 50 out of 67 transitions from repressive or dictatorial to relatively ‘free’ regimes in the past 33 years; the majority of these countries managed to effect a lasting transition from dictatorial regimes to elected governments. Tactics have included boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes, and civil disobedience. While many other pressures contribute to political transitions (involvement of the opposition or the military, foreign intervention, and so on), the presence of strong and cohesive nonviolent civic coalitions has proven vital.

Compared with the steady hum of the state’s machinery, civil
society activity waxes and wanes, coming into its own in moments of protest and crisis, and often falling away after a victory – such as winning a change in the law, or the election of a more progressive government that promptly recruits key civil society leaders. In such circumstances, many CSOs find it difficult to move from a strategy of opposition to one of engagement… Less dramatic than mass protest, but equally important, civil society
can demonstrate broad public support for policy changes, thus making it easier for political leaders to act and resist pressure from those who would rather maintain the status quo.

In the late 1990s, for example, the Maria Elena Cuadra Women’s Movement in Nicaragua collected 50,000 signatures calling for better working conditions in the country’s export-processing zones, prompting the minister of labour to enforce the law and convincing factory owners to adopt a voluntary code of conduct.

Civil society also plays an important, if less visible, role in more
closed political systems, such as one-party states. A study in Viet Nam revealed a virtuous circle of state and NGO investment in training and education, improved communications (for example, an upgraded road, funded by the World Bank, which allowed easier contact between villages and the district authorities), and pressure from the central government for local authorities to encourage popular participation in poverty reduction efforts. As a result, both villagers and local authorities gained confidence and began to exchange opinions and ideas more openly. Women in particular became much more vocal after receiving training in agricultural methods and making more regular trips away from the village.

Much of the long-term impact of CSOs is based on the slow building of people’s skills and capabilities, fostering changes in attitudes and beliefs.