Role of Global Civil Society in Global Governance - Assignment Example

What role does global civil society play in global governance? Provide support for your argument with recent world politics events Introduction: Globalization, Democracy and Civil Society in Modern World Since early dawn of the human civilization, one of the most spontaneous behaviors of people has been to live as social creatures in the form of a community. This spontaneous, natural and organic tendency of human beings to live in form of a community has a received a great deal of scientific, sociological, cultural and political interpretation. However, each of these disciplines has unanimously agreed on the aspect that living of human beings in form of a community has helped them to achieve the target of common and global welfare both from political and humanist perspective. What we call as “Civil Society” actually has its root laid down deep in basic grounds of human moral, social and cultural values. Humanist philosophers, political scientists and sociologists have termed this spontaneity of human reaction to form community or to live as collective existence as, human fellowship, universal brotherhood or common empathy according to their respective understanding or perception of this reaction. In the post-globalization era, the same approaches have received a political ideological manifestation through the term “Civil Society”. Human beings’ search for betterment, better survival and existence, better standards of life and better realization of flourishing as well as appreciation of basic human rights in insatiable. Different phases of human civilization clearly provide evidences through changes in existing political and historical backdrop that existence of people as a collective force has helped to a considerable extent in preventing, whenever the natural human quest for betterment has attempted to be smothered by any external force, mostly individual human efforts, “Collective action in search of the good society is a universal part of human experience, though manifested in a million different ways across time, space and culture” (Edwards, 2009, p. 1). In the modern social context, where the globe is regarded as a vast and common platform for mutual existence and interaction, democracy is attaining novel scopes of interpretation and at the same time, nature of abuse as well as exploitation of human rights is changing dynamically, alongside celebration of new democratic philosophies, development of “Civil Society” is one of strongest weapon in the hands of humanity against such forces of exploitation so that a better existence for common people can be ensured. On one hand, in the context of global governance the voice of civil society is regarded as a threat against any tyrannical approaches that aim at exploiting and depriving common people from enjoying their basic rights. On the other, civil society acts as one of the most active as well as influential human entity that can show proper direction to the system of global governance, if it sincerely attempts for human welfare. Thesis Statement: The role of global civil society is manifold as it helps the global governance to initiate welfare of common people and also prevents interest of people if that is under threat of being exploited by arbitrary actions of state. In the modern context of global existence and international politics, civil society can be regarded as a guardian or protector of human rights and democratic philosophy. Development of Civil Society: The idea of civil society, though has attained different layers of manifestation and the basic ideology has been provided with different names at different points of time, has always remained one of the most effective forces in the context of protecting rights of common people. Starting from earliest instances of human civilization in different parts of the world to the post globalization democratic structure in international politics, history provides us with numerous such instances that clearly reflect oppression of political systems against common people. It is interesting to see that whenever magnitude of such oppression reached its culmination, the collective existence of people took form of a powerful entity, which has compelled the system either to shirk from its path of oppression and effectively create paths of common welfare or has demolished the existing system so that a new force can come to power and scope for human welfare can be broadened. Despite such strong presence of civil society as an ideology, the term did not receive that much of appreciation beyond political or academic premises. However, since last two decades civil society has become one of the most discussed terms both from individual and political ideology perspective. There are several reasons that are responsible for development of what is known as today’s civil society. The 20th century intellectual development definitely provided modern trend of existence and international politics with humanist impetus. At the same time, celebration of basic democratic rights has also been provided with special importance so that people can enjoy their respective rights, enshrined by constitutions and socio-political approaches, to the best extent. However, quite antithetical to progress of such humanist thoughts and ideals, the political entities, mainly the powerful nations went on with the struggle to prove their respective supremacy over others. Each of the engaging parties in such struggle aimed at attaining greatest control possible over international socio-political scenario so that highest benefits can be attained in terms of economic and political power. Finally, such naked aggression of power led the human civilization to experience the consecutive World Wars and tremendous exploitation of human rights. Aftermath the period, when human civilization was attempting to get out of the period of trauma, chain of events, such as, Cold War, civil wars among different ethnic groups in different parts of the worlds, racial and religious oppression, abuse of democracy and human rights in the hands of state systems, Gulf Wars and finally, terrorism, which according to most of the political scientists is a product of modern politics, jeopardized lives of common people. Naturally, under such circumstance, a spontaneous urge for togetherness, protection of democracy and immediate change in the existing “economic and political models” was realized (Edwards, 2009, p. 2). Such situation of urgency to change received adequate impetus from incidents like fall of communism, process of globalization, rise of NGOs, and rapid development in the field of media and mass communication (Edwards, 2009, p. 2). People, irrespective of their physical and social barrier, started receiving more and detailed information about situation of their fellow human being in different parts of the world; consequently, they also realized that the condition of prevailing anarchy, though it has different forms of manifestations in different socio-political environment, needs to be stopped so that a better future can be ensured (Edwards, 2009, p. 2-3). Judging from this perspective, civil society can be viewed as an instrument that on one hand aims at providing common people with economic and individual liberty by reducing political interference; on the other, it is a pervasive force, generated through common people that aims at securing a better existence for the entire humankind, “…civil society is either a specific product of the nation-state and capitalism (arising spontaneously to mediate conflicts between social life and the market economy when the industrial revolution fractured traditional bonds of kin and community) or a universal expression of the collective lives of individuals, at work in different countries and stages of development but expressed in different ways according to history, culture and context” (Edwards, 2009, p. 3). The traits of Modern Democracy generated from Globalization: One of the main reasons behind such wide acceptance as well as recognition of the term “Globalization” has been drastic transformation in the arena of trade, finance and operations of multinational organizations. The multinational organizations and their products emerged as a very effective tool in the hands of developed nations to occupy markets of other countries and through such process the nations aimed at churning out a great deal of profit. Consequently, a great deal of reforms also became conspicuous in the arena of global trade, trade policies, economic models and GDP rate. The major trading nations came under obligation of mutually agreed legal framework so that collisions can be avoided to the best possible extent. At the same time, nations also understood the necessity to change their existing monetary and foreign business policies so that home industries can also be provided with adequate protection from being destroyed (Held, 1998, p. 15-18). However, apart from such interdependence in the context of business or finance and global trade, traits of conspicuous changes have also become evident in the field of both intra and inter cultural communication. English became the most dominant language, acting as a medium for such cultural communication. Additionally, telecommunication, Internet and media coverage emerged as potent devices to provide comprehensive understanding to common people about events that happening in different parts of the world. Thus, without being physically present in the location of the even, common people received an easy access to different socio-cultural, economic and political scenario and became capable of associating their respective conditions with others (Held, 1998, p. 18-19). Thus, the process of globalization, within its scope, encompassed two distinct phenomena: “First, … many chains of political, economic and social activity are becoming interregional or intercontinental … and secondly, … there has been an intensification of levels of interaction and interconnectedness within a between states and societies” (Held, 1998, p. 13). Automatically, empowered with such diverse range of knowledge and consciousness about different aspects of living, common people’s perception of democracy did undergo a great deal of change. On one hand, people started questioning the interpretation of democracy “as a national form of political organization” and on the other, unified opinion of common people were raised strongly on several occasions to transform the mode of ruling from authoritarian or autocratic to democratic process (Held, 1998, p. 11). It becomes clear from such observation that globalization has a very important role to play behind development of civil society. Compared to the earlier times, one of the most important features of the modern civil society is the cosmopolitan range of opinion, which has been generated through cosmopolitan nature of the civil society. People shared as well as asserted their respective opinion regarding democracy and different systems of governance and none of these opinions could be ignored if we think from individualistic or separate communal requirement perspective from the global society. The kind of importance that respective systems of governance started providing to such opinions becomes clear if the statement of former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres in taken under consideration, “We live in a world where markets are no less important than countries and where multinational companies are no less important than governments (Cited in Rosenau, 1998, p. 28). Civil Society and Global Governance: The Challenges Flourish of people’s voice and their different perspectives on governance can surely receive a positive interpretation in the context of realizing the vast scope of democracy but which is entirely theoretical. In the practical context, such diversity and cosmopolitan approach of the global civil society towards democracy is surely a matter of great challenge for the system of global governance. Systems of governance, such as the United Nations and respective national governments, are definitely main systems to control global governance but their actions, at the same time, are oriented to a great extent by the human activism as “global governance is conceived to include systems of rule at all levels of human activity – from the family to the international organization – … (Rosenau, 1998, p. 29). Thus, governing such widespread sense of cosmopolitanism with adequate opportunity for flourish of human activism is the greatest challenge for global governance. What is the consequence of failure of such system of governance? Democracy, in the modern sense provides people sufficient scope to exercise their respective rights and belief. Unless modes of such exercising is properly valued and respected, additionally, a government does not come up with necessary means to prevent the means of expressing the rights, it is quite inevitable that differences in perception will overlap and finally it will result in the creation of an anarchical situation. Though a democratic set up provides its inhabitants with scope to exercise their rights but also clearly mentions that such exercising should not be done in such a manner so that basic rights of other people are hampered. In is due to this reason, the global governance has started providing increasing rate of opportunity to international humanitarian law so that governmental and non-governmental institutions, moreover, common people adhere to such legal framework; consequently also learns to respect “powers and constraints, and rights and duties, which have qualified the principle of state sovereignty” (Held, 1999, p. 65) in an according manner. However, implementation of a proper system of global governance has not been successful and due to this reason, despite amendments in such legal structure abuse of human rights is a regular issue, only to name a few: ethnic conflict and genocide in Rwanda, violence in name of religion and massacre out of political unrest in Seattle, Prague or Genoa. Cosmopolitanism, in its literal sense, actually signifies diversity but when it comes to realization of the term in global civil society and its role in global governance, it reflects an essentially universal humanist ideology. According to classical approach, cosmopolitanism is a pervasive philosophy which suggests every individual is required to see himself as an inhabitant of the global community, rather than part of any particular community or nation. During the 18th century intellectual enlightenment another interpretation was introduced, which is near to the idea of world citizenship and like the classical approach, such interpretation also emphasized over the aspect of universal humanism (Held, 002, p. 309). Irrespective of all the changes of approach that Cosmopolitanism encompasses within scope of its interpretation, however, the ideology of universal humanism has remained unchanged. Keeping this issue in mind, if the global civil society has to provide a proper way of governance to the global political and legal institutions, then it has to respect the potential of cosmopolitanism and once it is done accordingly, there will surely be lack of human rights violation; consequently, journey towards attainment of a better society would be easier. It is important for inhabitants of a civil society to believe that a system of governance must have certain means of command and control over them so that the existence of social peace can be maintained properly. Conventionally, devices related to command and control are often interpreted as oppression of a system over its people. It is not that such observation is entirely incorrect, because of several occasions, in names of command and control, governmental institutions oppress common people. However, if a governmental system honestly used the techniques of command and control to maintain the situation of peaceful existence and at the same time also provides empathetic attention towards issues like, interdependence, proliferation, disaggregation, innovation and emergence of new system of governance through relocation of corrupt or tyrannical authority, then there will surely a positive change in the existing scenario (Rosenau, 1998, p. 29-34). Conclusion: The global civil society can clearly said to be a source of immense power and plays, perhaps, the most important part in the system of global governance. Radical change of approach in the arena of knowledge and diversity in interpretation of such knowledge by common people has helped in introducing new thoughts in the context of modern democracy. However, at the same time, it should also be kept in mind that immense potential of civil society if cannot be controlled, rather channelized properly, might lead to a situation of extreme anarchy. Failure to prescribe a proper system of governance can lead to massacre, as the human civilization has witnessed in the form of Gulf Wars, or failure of humanity in places like, Bosnia, Rwanda or Somalia (Holden, 2000, p. 170). The scope for proper functioning of the global governance and using the potential of civil society can only be expanded if such a system can be developed where there will be rule of law, proper respect for human rights, proper realization of both participation and accountability of common people in daily affairs, transparency of approach in functioning of the governmental institutions and finally non-violent approaches (Holden, 2000, p. 173-174). Unless there is a proper and sincere collaboration between legal or political institutions and informal ones, such as NGOs (Beetham, 1998, p. 61), attainment of the humanist and socialist model of governance, leading to development of a flexible democratic structure will remain unachievable. References Beetham, D. 1998. “Human Rights as the Model for Cosmopolitan Democracy”. Re-imagining political community: studies in cosmopolitan democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Edwards, M. 2009. Civil Society. Ed: 2. Cambridge: Polity. Held, D. 2002. “Cosmopolitanism: Ideas, Realities and Deficits”. Governing globalization: power, authority and global governance. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Held, D. 1998. “Democracy and Globalization”. Re-imagining political community: studies in cosmopolitan democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press Held, D. 1999. Global transformations: politics, economics and culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press Holden, B. 2000. Global democracy: key debates. London: Routledge. Rosenau, J.N. 1998. “Governance and Democracy in a Globalizing World”. Re-imagining political community: studies in cosmopolitan democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Read More