Student Number : 9510358Y - PhD thesis - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities

The World Health Organization states that 462 million adults are considered underweight, and malnutrition accounts for almost 50% of deaths for children under the age of 5. Economic, political, and medical consequences of malnutrition are severe for individuals, families, countries, and the world. The objective of this thesis is to develop a causal theory to ending malnutrition. This thesis undertakes a comparative case study analysis of Peru and Brazil to outline what factors led to their success. It synthesizes two bodies of political science literature on social movements and development to argue for the importance of civil society and social welfare policy implementation. It concludes that in democracies, a link between civil society and the state is crucial to implement necessary policies and programs that combat malnutrition. The most important of these policies are related to healthcare, maternal education, child education, and food security.

My dissertation titled Two Models of Consensus is based on five arguments. 1. Consensus is asymmetrical. 2. Consensus is partial or limited unanimity. 3. Consensus and democracy do have a concomitant relation. 4. Consensus is not organic to political systems. 5. Consensus depends upon civil society, subsidiarity, and the dominant cultural paradigm of society. In the first chapter titled "Historical Specificity of the Western Conception of Civil Society" I argue that concept of civil society evolved under certain conditions in a liberal democratic tradition such as shared social imaginaries. As an example of how diversity could lead to hypostatization of cultural differences, I exposit the concept of Indian caste system. In the second chapter, "Intersubjectivity and the Problem of Cultural Identities", I compare the ideas of Hans Georg Gadamer and George Herbert Mead about self- interested action and mutual cooperative action. Gadamer and Mead emphasize intersubjective communication, I Thou relationships. I explain the importance of the I Thou relationship for a consensual activity. The third chapter, "Consensus in the Realm of Science", discusses the impact of science as the context of justification in advanced liberal democracies and its effect on consensus. Charles Sanders Peirces attempt to apply his scientific method to arrive at a consensus in the social sphere is also discussed in this chapter. In the fourth chapter, "Kwasi Wiredu The Akan Conception of Communitarian Consensus", I discuss Kwasi Wiredus emphasis on achieving a consensus on the basis of what is and not what ought to be, in the social realm. Wiredu differentiates between a government by consent and a government by consensus. I elaborate Wiredu's abakysis of the process of consensus that was in vogue in the Akan community of Ghana. In the final chapter, "Political Consensus - Intra-cultural and Extra-cultural," I argue that consensus is asymmetrical. It is imperative to compromise in social, political, economic, and religious beliefs on the basis of weak deontological and weak consequential approaches. Consensus necessitates a synthesis of different kinds of social actions such as purposive-instrumental, traditional, value-laden, and communicative action into what I call the Cooperative Action. Only such an action can speak across cultures and facilitate genuine cross-cultural interaction.

This thesis focuses on the problem of incivility within the domains of citizen politics and civil society by exploring the proclivity for popular protest in Jamaica and the intersections between popular citizen protest, civil society and governance in this context. It scrutinizes the tenor of contemporary civilian politics and assesses the consequent impact on the quality of civil society more broadly. The thesis challenges the assumption within accepted definitions of civil society that civic participation is always positive. It does so by examining the manner in which citizens engage collectively to defend their interests and make claims upon the state, as well as the extent to which this model of political participation serves the agenda and promise of civil society. Through an in-depth, country-specific, empirical case study, the thesis examines micro social processes of power at community level to raise questions about who should be represented in civil society and how the voices of the marginalized are to be heard. In this regard, it explores the role of social inequality, feelings of social injustice and political exclusion as contributory factors in the existing tenor of citizen politics in Jamaica. It also examines the challenges facing the contemporary state and the impact of violent protests on state engagement, public action and political performance. The study analyses the lived experiences, observations and perspectives of a wide cross section of Jamaican citizens, gleaned from face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, as well as a range of secondary material, including audio-visual data, to illuminate this process of struggle and underscore the factors which drive violent protests in this political context. The thesis concludes that maximum disruption, including violence, has not only become the basis of civil protest in Jamaica, but that the varied and contradictory responses of the state bureaucracy and political actors (Members of Parliament, activists, other political iii officials), as well as the mass media, have directly contributed to the style and tenor of protest politics in Jamaica. This state of affairs reduces popular citizen participation over genuine concerns to mob-style incivility and undermines civil society as a source of positive and responsible citizenship. The growing political importance of grassroots-based citizen participation and community building within the context of a global imperative to forge 'democracy from below' lends theoretical and normative credence to emerging concerns about the current character of popular citizen mobilizations and protest. This study thus establishes the basis for a presumption in favour of civility, civil discourse and civil action as fundamental to the construction of civil society. In doing so, it extends current scholarly understandings of civil society to Third World contexts, with a specific emphasis on Jamaica.

This thesis examines the engagement of civil society in Yogyakarta to prevent ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. The thesis explains why and how the people of Yogyakarta avoided ethnic violence, particularly anti-ethnic Chinese riots, during the heightened socio-economic crisis of 1998. The thesis investigates interactions between civil society actors, local traditional leaders and grassroots people in Yogyakarta in preventing ethnic violence. I argue that various actions of civil society organisations in Yogyakarta were instrumental in preventing ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. This argument runs counter to the popular Yogyanese myth that Sultan Hamengku Buwono X (HB X) played a dominant role in preventing ethnic violence during the economic crisis of 1998. The thesis will highlight some local mechanisms that have greatly contributed to the prevention of ethnic and religious violence in Yogyakarta. The findings are as follows: (1) Civil society in Yogyakarta including Non-government organisations, interfaith dialogue organisations, intellectuals, student organisations, religious leaders, and business associations played a key role in managing the socio-economic crisis through the provision of staple food packages, arranging coordination meetings, and organising vigilante teams. In contrast, unlike the popular myth, Sultan HB X's role was limited. (2) Local inter-ethnic civil society organisations such as Paguyuban Mitra Masyarakat Yogyakarta (Association of the Fellowship of Yogyakarta Society), Komite Kemanusiaan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Humanitarian Committee) and Tim Relawan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Volunteer Team) functioned as platforms of communication and coordination between Chinese and indigenous Indonesians, and Muslims and Christians. With the help of these inter-ethnic civil society organisations, the Chinese community and their business associations in Yogyakarta actively engaged in dispensing staple food packages. (3) Local Islam-affiliated organisations in Yogyakarta such as the LKiS, MUI, NU, Muhammadiyah, and the PPP also played a significant role in managing heightened tensions. They cooperated with other non-Islamic civil society organisations in encouraging ethnic and religious pluralism and restraining primordial sentiment during the economic crisis of 1998.

Contemporary debates about collective action in civil society have given prominent place to the connections between voluntary associations and social capital. Social capital research, however, commonly over-emphasises the role of associations in generating societal-level outcomes, to the neglect of the specific contexts in which associations reside and the different opportunities individuals and groups have to access resources for and through collective action. Also largely ignored are considerations of gender. This thesis addresses these issues, presenting evidence from a case study of a large women???s service organisation ??? the VIEW Clubs of Australia ??? to examine how social capital and women???s agency intersect. The thesis adopts a social-structural approach to social capital, highlighting its role as a resource brokered through networks that both enable and constrain action. This approach attends to the inter-relations of particular types of social capital, such as bonding and bridging; specific elements of social capital, such as reciprocity, trust, and shared values, identities and purposes; and addresses the broader socio-historical context in which social capital networks are located. The thesis employs a model of agency that encompasses three core fields of agency ??? individual, social and political. These fields of agency encapsulate the capacity for women to ???act??? and exercise choice and change in their own lives, in the community, and in the polity, and to do this through collective action. The thesis applies these ideas using an embedded case study model combining documentary analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal agency and social capital to be in tension. Activities that feed the agential capacity of the organisation and its members are more successfully realised in areas closest to women???s past experiences than in those addressing the public sphere. The research nevertheless shows that a voluntary association such as VIEW can foster women???s agency. Indeed, building women???s capacities in society as a whole may well rely on organisational contexts where women are empowered to self-develop and connect their activities to broader society. This is impacted by the nature, purpose, and social location of the social capital networks of women and others, and has implications for how we understand the ongoing role of voluntary associations in civil society. By revealing how different dimensions of social capital operate and intersect with women???s agency, the thesis shows the dynamic role of voluntary associations in civil society.

In addition to successful economic reforms, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) is also in the process of implementing reforms in the areas of civil society, decentralisation and grassroots democracy, within what is generally considered a strong state environment. Relevant research argues that uninhibited democracy, decentralisation and civil society are important elements in achieving what has been popularly termed community 'participation' by development practitioners. This process was particularly assisted by the release of the grassroots democracy decree of 1998 and its subsequent update in 2003 that set out the details of what Vietnam required from the village and commune levels as part of the reform process. Interestingly, it is also these two levels that form the dividing line between government and community in Vietnam. Although there have been several studies investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the grassroots democracy decree and other related policies, village-based planning and development programs, which are a development approach piloted by several non-government organisations (NGOs) and donors to address these issues, have not been comprehensively evaluated. These programs, which are generally long-term, area-based, holistic and integrated, have frequently been observed to deliver many of the relevant elements within the larger notions of democracy, decentralisation, civil society and participation. The research explores the effectiveness of village-based planning and development approaches within the Vietnamese context using both quality and quantity criteria to assess elements of program effectiveness, focussing primarily on community level perspectives. Four projects of a selected international non-government organisation (INGO), were used as a detailed case study utilising a combination of qualitative focus groups and interviews, complimented by two quantitative household interviews. These community opinions were triangulated against the opinion of other key stakeholders including government, bilateral and multilateral aid donors, as well as Vietnamese and International NGOs involved in such approaches. The research highlights that with careful attention, village-based planning and development approaches do have the ability to more effectively allow the community to be put back into the 'centre of development' in Vietnam, rather than being passive recipients or marginalised by the development process. A set of seven key elements that contribute to more effective village-based planning and development approaches in Vietnam has been outlined in this thesis. It is hoped that these key elements might be further utilised by donor, NGO and government agencies to support the appropriate replication and up-scaling of the approaches to enable development needs and poverty to be more effectively reduced in Vietnam However, the approaches are not without their challenges, in particular in terms of achieving integrated planning from village to national level, being flexible enough for the variety of ethnic minority and geographical areas, effectively involving a broad and appropriate range of individuals and organised civil society groups and, perhaps most importantly, taking the approaches beyond the current few pilot programs to a national scale that forms a more integral part of the government's overall poverty reduction strategy.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>When Vladimir Putin in the year 2000 came to power in Russia many believed that the Russian civil society were weak and had very little influence and with Putin people say that the situation have deteriorated. The purpose of this paper is to establish what kind of relationship exists between the Russian state and the civil society and to analyze this from a top-down perspective. We are looking at Russia during Putins first term in office from the year 2000 until 2004. In order to establish the relationship we have used John S. Dryzeks theory of inclusive and exclusive state and whether it’s active or passive in this process. The method used in this paper is a qualitative case study design. We concluded that the Russian state is an exclusive state rather then an inclusive one. When it comes to establish if the state is active or passive is more difficult but we feel that it’s more of a passive state then active.</p>

Social movements in various parts of the world have been attempting to challenge the forces of neoliberal globalization and the social problems caused by this economic trend. Many such movements have been advancing the idea of global civil society in order to counter 'globalization from above'. Despite the efforts of these movements to democratize social relations, the domination of these powerful forces persist and result in further oppression of marginalized people. This study attempts to discover the reasons why these social movements and civil society, despite popular support, fail to challenge effectively the power of such social forces. In particular, this study analyzes, through in-depth interviews with activists, and archival and observational data, the world-view of civil society activists in a movement against Coca-Cola initiated by the marginalized people in Kerala, India. While this struggle, popularly called the 'Plachimada movement', managed to effect the temporary closure of a Coca-Cola plant, whose operation reportedly affected the ground water in the region, the local people felt that it failed to address their conditions of marginality. The analysis of the movement's processes finds that hegemony, or indirect forms of domination, often stands in the way of such efforts at democratic social change. The study concludes with suggestions for rethinking civil society as an arena of reflexive collective action that is counter-hegemonic.