Will Civil Society Save the World?

First Quarter 2001

by Roland Hoksbergen

Roland Hoksbergen teaches economics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he and Lowell Ewert (Conrad Grebel College in Ontario) have organized a project under the auspices of the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship on Third World development. The project is unusual in that it focuses not on economics but on "civil society"--the term that refers, variously, to the organizations and institutions of society that are neither governmental nor economic. The following comments are excerpted from Hoksbergen's presentation that kicked off a three-day conference in Grand Rapids, November 9-11, 2000, at which two dozen pracitioners and development experts presented the first drafts of their studies. A book that incorporates the finished essays will be one of the project's fruits. For more information about the project, contact Professor Hoksbergen at hoksro@calvin.edu or at 616-957-6369. --Ed.

We live at a time in which six historical realities, somewhat parallel, somewhat interrelated, have propelled civil society onto the world stage. These are (1) the end of the Cold War, allowing discussion of participation, human rights, people's movements, and so on to occur in a non-polarized setting; (2) the conclusive failure of authoritarian, top-down centralized, statist models of development; (3) the newly recognized power of people's movements to bring about major change in countries around the world; (4) rising concern over the corruption and dependency fostered by traditional development aid, combined with (5) rising appreciation of the effectiveness of the development work of non-government organizations (NGOs); and (6) begrudging appreciation of the viability of the U.S. development experience, in which civil society has played a key role. In addition to the propitious opening that history has allowed civil society, there is also a powerful internal logic to the connection between civil society and sustainable development.

A fundamental question for this project is whether civil society is a necessary element of a good society. Another crucial set of questions is whether outsiders can actually contribute to the development of civil society in Third World contexts. These questions are especially acute in view of the common understanding that for development to really be sustainable, the motive force for that development must arise internally. What then is the role of outsiders? Many believe today that NGOs are the best hope for intervening from the outside to help build civil society and thus foster constructive change. But there are many doubts as well, including the inability of outsiders to adequately understand the local context; the temptation to serve donors or internal bureaucratic demands rather than the people; the tendency to import development models from other times and places; and the always difficult issue of when and how to transfer financial resources.

In addressing the large issues surrounding the discussion of civil society and development, Christians need to be consciously aware of the array of regional, cultural, and theological traditions that bear on the discussion. What unifies us in this project is our Christian faith and our common desire to work for the well-being of God's people everywhere. Though our different Christian traditions may stem from different perspectives, they may also lead us to discover valuable insights into the basic questions of civil society, sustainable development, and the role of NGOs.

Christian NGOs must decide what kinds of groups they are going to work with and what kind they will promote. Should they build daughter organizations, or work to build up local churches, para-church organizations, self-help small business groups, or broad-based community groups?

There are also questions about what motivates individuals in civil society to work for the common good? When is it time to give, and when is it time to receive? Knowing that people bear both God's image and the curse of the fall, making them capable of both good and evil, Christian NGOs will search for models of civil society that bring out the best in people while also establishing accountability mechanisms that check their tendency to sin.

Furthermore, how do we bridge the divides of culture and power? People from all traditions seem to have an instinctive acceptance of the notion that some cultural habits are relative, while at the same time acknowledging the existence of universal human values. How to discern the difference is at once absolutely crucial and incredibly difficult. As always, questions of respect and human dignity are inevitably caught up in questions of power. How do rich nations, peoples, and NGOs work with other nations, peoples, and partners in ways that are properly respectful of the dignity and responsibility of everyone? Christian NGOs need to discover models of partnership that can guide them in their effort to empower others in culturally appropriate ways, while remaining true to their mission.