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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-55842 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Kansiime Kiiza, Noel |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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