Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there exists a near total consensus regarding the desirability of democracy. Many see the push towards democracy as encouraged by the increasing interconnectednessusually referred to as 'globalization'-between countries and peoples. Civil societies around the world are often regarded as the primary beneficiaries of globalization. Simultaneously, they are frequently represented by policy-makers, academics and development practitioners, as the new agents of democratization, particularly in the struggle against authoritarian regimes. This thesis seeks to answer two sets of questions: 1. Does civil society contribute to democratization? If so, how? And if not, why not? 2. Does globalization help or hinder the democratization process? In response, this thesis argues that civil society plays a key role in contributing to democratization, but it does not necessarily do so. Indeed, certain sections of civil society playa role in maintaining authoritarianism. Secondly, globalization both helps and hinders democratization. This is nothing to do with globalization's intrinsic qualities, but rather due to the way that actors within civil society perceive glo baliza tion. I present here a case study of Egyptian human rights NGOs, as a sector of Egyptian civil society struggling for democratic governance. Following a survey of the current literature on globalization, democratization and civil society, Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical and conceptual elements of the thesis, which are based on Gramscian notions of hegemony and civil society. Chapter 2 locates the historical problem of democracy in Egypt within the hegemonic power relations that have developed in the post-colonial era. This chapter represents the emergence of Egypt's first human rights organization as pushing the boundaries of the hegemonic consensus. Chapter 3 demonstrates that, despite the shared origins and objectives of the Egyptian human rights NGO community, different human rights NGOs pursue different strategies in attempting to bring about democratization. These different strategies depend upon the positions of human rights activists vis-a-vis the post-colonial hegemonic consensus. Chapter 4 examines the way in which human rights NGOs conflict with other sections of civil society because of the former's resistance to the hegemonic consensus. Furthermore, civil society opposition to human rights NGOs leads to calls for their control and, consequently, the strengthening of authoritarianism. Chapter 5 examines further how authoritarianism may be strengthened as a result of globalization. It also considers the problems faced by human rights NGOs and other civil society actors in building a wide-based coalition for democratization that challenges the bases of the hegemonic consensus underpinning authoritarianism. In the final chapter, I suggest some implications for this research inrelation to how we conceive politics and political strategies in the struggles of non-state groups for democratization

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This dissertation looks into the processes by which neoliberalism is mutating with various local and global discourses in order to transform urban space for marginalized street hawkers in the Global South, specifically Delhi, India. Following the current engagements in geographic literature on neoliberalism that focus on the contextually embedded character and the path-dependent process of the spread of free market ideas, I make free market advocacy think tanks--a rather unknown and under-investigated accomplice to this process--my main entry point. Corporate funded think tanks are often found advocating a neoliberal doctrine of free markets, minimal government intervention, and privatization. A self-professed civil society organization, the Center for Civil Society (CCS) in Delhi is one of the first neoliberal, national and foreign corporation funded, advocacy think tanks in India and one of its many agendas is to counter the popular belief that neoliberalism is harmful for the urban poor such as street hawkers. Various NGOs, social workers, scholars, academicians, and think tanks including CCS came together to form the National Policy of Street Vendors, 2009 (NPSV), one of the first policy proposals in modern India to tackle the problems of urban spaces of street vending. Through my investigations I wish to highlight the neoliberal attitudes that are concealed in this policy regarding street hawkers. By bringing these neoliberal undertones to the forefront, this dissertation discusses how this so called “pro-hawking” policy that is being pushed to be implemented in the majority of Indian cities is in fact hostile to hawkers. I demonstrate this fact by explaining that NPSV and its proponents view space as a capitalist commodity and are attempting to transform the rich social spaces of Indian city streets into hollow container spaces of capitalist production and consumption. In this way, this dissertation connects macro spaces of governance such as city streets to the micro spaces of governmentality such as think tanks like CCS.

This thesis seeks to evaluate the progress of regional community building in Southeast Asia, which has been undertaken by the Association of Southeast Asians (ASEAN). The thesis analyses the extent to which there has been a shift from policies and processes associated with “old regionalism” (state-security-economic centred regionalism) towards those which are associated with “new regionalism” and a regional community (the widening of regionalism to non-state actors, and expansion of regional cooperation into new areas, and regional solidarity). The first half of the thesis demonstrates the persistence of “old regionalism,” based on a tendency to differentiate others as an external security threat in Thailand's bilateral relations. This tendency is driven by a deeply embedded historical legacy of differentiation, which is pursued by state actors for domestic political interests, as well as on-going bilateral disputes, and a militarised border. The second half of the thesis tests the significance of “new regionalism,” based on three case studies on civil society participation in regional community building. These case studies demonstrate how “new regionalism” is significant in form, rather than in substance, and how progress in community building is mainly driven by the more democratic ASEAN member states. Visible progress in community building includes the emergence of ASEAN-CSO meetings, an ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and a transnational civil society network (TCSN), which is increasing society's regional awareness and society's participation in regionalism. However, substantive progress is lacking, due to the region's political diversity and the prioritization of regional unity over the realization of a people-oriented ASEAN Community. Thus, ASEAN community building is empty in substance, due to the continuation of politically motivated differentiation and border insecurity, symbolic meetings between states and CSOs, a powerless regional human rights body, and the remaining gap between regional declarations and policy implementation.

The concept of civil society has for so long been complex, elusive and debatable. Time and again it has increasingly dominated both political and academic discourses. For the last two decades, there has been proliferation of civil society organisations especially in developing world whereby the donor community regard them as a universal remedy for underdevelopment and authoritarianism. After failure of several development approaches to do away with poverty, underdevelopment and dictatorial regimes, civil society has been presented as the beacon of freedom, the fountain for the protection of civil rights and of resistance against state repression. It was also regarded as the mobilizing platform of society for the protection and projection of substantive interests, the compelling force for state moderation, the epitome of popular struggles and civil power as well as a centralforce in political and economic reforms. This report presents findings on a study of state-civil society relationship, the case of Uganda. The main objective of this study was to “describe and analyze the reality of civil society in Uganda in relation to the theoretical concept of civil society”, therein comprehending the functions, actors and relationship between state and civil society in Uganda. The study process consisted of a desk study of available documentation on civil society concept.  The main findings indicate that civil society organisations in Uganda are more active in the area of service delivery than policy advocacy. Therefore the bilateral function as service deliverers and policy advocates by civil society is far way from being a reality in Uganda. Findings also indicate that the state is less tolerant and uncomfortable with advocacy CSOs but largely cooperates with CSOs dealing in service delivery. The applicability of civil society concept in Uganda’s context is still far away from being achieved due to the fact that the political environment where civil society operates is constrained by the state. It was also revealed that donor funding is the cornerstone for civil society functioning in Uganda.

Ph.D.--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / The Kenyan political landscape has, since the 1990’s, been tumultuous and characterised by multiple political and social struggles centred on embedding a new constitutional order. This thesis is a qualitative case study of the Ufungamano Initiative, a powerful movement involved in these struggles between 1999 and 2005. Emerging in an environment of deep societal divisions and multiple sites of struggle, the Ufungamano Initiative is a remarkable story of how and why previously disjointed and disparate individuals and groups came together in a ‘movement of movements’ to become a critical contender in Kenyan constitutional reforms. The movement utilised direct citizens’ actions and was directly in competition with the Moi/KANU state for control of the Constitution Reform Process. This direct competition and challenge, posed a legitimacy crisis on the state led process forcing an autocratic and intolerant regime to capitulate and open up space for democratic engagement of citizens in the Constitution Reform Process. But the Ufungamano Initiative is also a story of the limits of social movements. While holding so much power and promise, movements are limited in their ability to effect fundamental changes in society. Even after substantial gains in challenging the state, the Ufungamano Initiative was vulnerable and agreed to enter a ‘coerced’ merger with the state-led process in 2001. The merger dissipated the Ufungamano Initiative’s energy. This study therefore speaks to the power and limits of social movements in effecting fundamental changes in society. Applying a socio-historical approach, the study locates the Ufungamano Initiative within the broader social, economic and political struggles to argue that contemporary constitutional reform struggles in Kenya were, in Polanyi’s (1944) terms, double movement type of societal counter-movements to protect itself from an avaricious economic and political elites. Engaging the political process model, this thesis analyses seventy in-depth interviews and secondary data to explain the dynamics in the rise, operations, achievements and decline of the Ufungamano Initiative as illustrative of how movements emerge, take on a life of their own and sometimes metamorphose into phenomenal forces of change, or just fizzle out.

This thesis argues that a peace-oriented struggle has emerged in Peshawar from within the non–state space and is demonstrated at the empirical level by various associations in that space. The struggle to embrace peace and reject different forms of violence, by this associational life in Peshawar is what we call an ‘emergent civil society’. The thesis argues against those who claim that civil society cannot exist or flourish in a non-western environment. Civil Society in Peshawar is emergent, as the empirical evidence suggests, but within an overarching tendency to root this in a local cultural identity. The latter is, however, imbued with values, belief systems, and gender roles, which limit the search for peace. Two examples are the dominance of a hyper masculinity and religious orthodoxies, which undermine forms of associationalism which might promote peace. To find an indigenous cultural identity, the ‘emergent civil society’ navigates, not without tensions, across three different worldviews that includes cultural (Pakhtunwali), religious (Islam) and, to a certain extent, liberal (human rights) perspectives. The tensions between different perspectives become more frictional when the ‘emergent civil society’ advocates women’s rights and religious pluralism, which is resisted by the antithetical forces of masculinity and religious orthodoxies. Amidst these contestations, the ‘emergent civil society’, while resisting these antithetical forces, pressurizes the state also to provide favourable conditions to continue its peace-oriented struggle. This thesis, however, suggests that the ‘emergent civil society’ also needs an in-ward looking tendency to self reflect on certain challenges that seem to impact the potential for growth and development of an associational life, which can fully embrace the social conditions for peace.

This thesis aims to address a key and understudied element of Turkish foreign-policy under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP): the civil-society factor. It answers the question: How has foreign-policy and diplomacy changed in this era due to the domestic dynamics, exploring how Turkey's image and global standing is dependent on the legitimacy and activism of non-state actors. The central aim being to understand how the interests, identity and practices of civil-society organizations (CSOs) have changed modes and channels of engagement with the Middle East: with Turkey increasingly deploying economic, humanitarian and cultural diplomacy in their relations with the region. The theoretical focus provides an alternative perspective on foreign-policy from a societal and ideational perspective. The empirical focus examines the development of civil-society in Turkey alongside the trajectory of changing foreign relations with the Middle East. This thesis highlights the variation in CSOs in terms of their relationship with the government: the type of interaction based on a number of variables such as autonomy from the government, the democratization process, the security environment and openings in the political space. By analysing the patterns of interaction and influence of CSOs, this dissertation contributes to the literature on civil-society influence and literature on Turkish foreign-policy (TFP). This thesis aims to contribute to growing research on civil-society's role in Turkey, however within the specific and understudied context of Middle East relations. It choses civil-society as the main unit of analysis in what is acknowledged to be a complex and multifaceted policy environment. However, as will be discussed throughout this thesis in relation to strong elements of continuity in TFP, the emergence of normative discourses, social, economic and political ties at the level of civil-society is one of the most distinct changes of the AKP era. Turkey's engagement with the Middle East has been shaped, and channelled through these actors, legitimized to the public and the international community. This renders the behaviour of Turkish CSOs even more significant to international relations, with Turkey's pre-2013 image as a regional mediator, humanitarian diplomat and soft-power contingent on these actors.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, while many towns and cities grew at a remarkable rate, interest in architectural design, planning, and the quality of urban landscapes also increased. By the close of the century a number of associations had been established that were concerned with promoting the care of ancient buildings, the protection of open spaces, or the quality of future urban growth. During the twentieth century associational activity concerned with the quality of urban space has proliferated. Many, if not most, towns and cities in Britain have an organized body dedicated to campaigning and acting for the interests of local identity, development and heritage. Sometimes these are called Preservation Trusts (as in St Andrews or Cambridge), sometimes they are simply named after the city to which they belong (The London Society or The Warwick Society), most commonly they are known as Civic Societies. Regardless of name, they share key objectives: the promotion of high standards in planning and architecture; the preservation of historically or aesthetically significant buildings; the education of the public in the history, geography, and architecture of the local environment. In the early twentieth century these organizations provided a focus for discussions about the nature of urban space and approaches to shaping the development of towns and cities. They brought together a range of individuals, including planners, architects, reformers, academics, artists and politicians, who shared a concern for the landscape of Britain’s cities. Through their discussions and activities emerged an approach to urban development that emphasised socio-scientific methods and ideas in combination with an argument about the affective bonds that connect individuals to a place. The approach was often called civics and the agenda pressed forward by civic associations and their members forms the focus for this study. This work explores the continuities between philanthropic experiment in the later nineteenth century and the civic movement of the twentieth century by demonstrating the connections between earlier and later activities, and emphasising the continued involvement of a number of key individuals and families. It makes a contribution to understanding professional development in the fields of planning, architecture and urban studies. Key figures in the history of British planning, such as Patrick Abercrombie, Raymond Unwin and George Pepler, formed their early professional networks through civic groups, while architects including Charles Reilly and Aston Webb developed their collaborations through their involvement with the civic movement. Furthermore, individuals whose role in British urban sociology, most notably Patrick Geddes, has influenced the ways in which we study our urban areas first promoted their ideas and methods through the network of civic associations that developed over the course of early twentieth century. Through the analysis this thesis draws in theoretically informed questions. Firstly these relate to the role of voluntary associations and networks in structuring the development of professions, circulating their bodies of specialist knowledge and securing wider participation in urban policy. Secondly, the thesis considers the manner in which spaces come to hold the meaning and memories of particular groups, the significance and power of representations of place and the emerging tradition of spatial history that privileges the micro-processes through which places are created and sustained.