“Power Shift”

1. “Power Shift” Jessica Matthews, Ch. 34, pp. 287-293. Excerpted from Matthews, “Power Shift,” Foreign Affairs, 76:1, 1997, pp. 50-66.

2. Key questions: • What is the nature of this “power shift”? • and its causes/effects? • Advantages/disadvantages of NGOs providing services once the responsibility of states? • Is technology creating a “global civil society”? • Does the influence of int’l NGOs constitute “neo-colonialism”? • Are int’l NGO workers “the new missionaries”? • Are they members of the TCC (transnational capitalist class)? • What does the rise of NGOs mean for democracy? • Key terms: civil society, NGOs, global civil society

3. The Rise of Global Civil Society • End of Cold War brought a redistribution of power among states, markets, and civil society • National gov’ts are sharing powers – incl political, social & security roles at core of sovereignty – w/ businesses, int’l organizations, and range of citizens groups, known as NGOs • Gov’ts are not simply losing autonomy in a globalizing economy

4. …and the Decline of States • Absolutes of Westphalian system – territorially fixed states; a single, secular authority governing each territory and representing it outside its borders; no authority above states – are all dissolving • Int’l standards of conduct are gradually beginning to override claims of national sovereignty

5. As states weaken, nonstate actors acquire more power globally • New info/communication technologies are most powerful engine in the relative decline of states and rise of nonstate actors (e.g., NGOs, as well as TNCs, criminal and terrorist networks, etc.) • They disrupt hierarchies, spread power among more people and groups • But they also have the potential to create new divisions, separating ordinary people from elites with wealth & education to command technology’s power

6. The Network Model • In networks, individuals or groups link for joint action without building a physical or formal institutional presence • Networks have no person at the top and no center • Networks have multiple nodes where collections of individuals/groups interact for different purposes, e.g., businesses, ethnic groups, crime cartels • Gov’ts, by contrast, are quintessential hierarchies

7. Global Civil Society? • civil society: arena of social activity outside of state & family • commonly understood to be composed of the range of voluntary organizations that operate on a not-for-profit basis, outside the market • NGOs are key actors • NGO:(nongovernmental organization): voluntary organization not part of the local, state, or federal government that is established for a particular cause or interest, e.g., human rights, the environment, consumer protection, etc.; also known as "citizen groups“ • global civil society: refers to voluntary social organization at the global level, in international institutions such as the UN, the IMF/World Bank, the World Social Forum, etc.; it is composed of the network of nongovernmental organizations that focus on international issues (INGOs, international nongovernmental organizations) or cooperate and collaborate across borders

8. Is global civil society a new Babel – or a new global elite? • New technologies and forms of organization may promote "political and social fragmentation by enabling more and more identities and interests scattered around the globe to coalesce and thrive“ • Citizens’ groups with transnational interests/identities – just like the super-rich – frequently have more in common with counterparts in other countries, industrialized or developing, than with countrymen

9. The Boomerang Pattern • Researchers studying transnational advocacy networks that link NGOs across borders highlight a new pattern of political change • boomerang pattern: State A blocks redress to organizations within it; they activate network, whose members pressure their own states and (if relevant) a 3rd-party organization, which in turn pressure State A

10. Advantages of NGOs • In many countries they deliver services that faltering gov’ts can no longer manage • NGOs are nimble, quicker to respond to new demands and opportunities • Their loyalties and orientation are better matched than those of gov’ts to problems that demand transnational solutions • In closed, undemocratic regimes, local NGOs can leverage transnational links to pressure their gov’ts

11. Disadvantages of NGOs • NGOs are special interests, accountable to their funders • NGOs have limited capacity for large-scale projects, and as they grow, the need to sustain growing budgets can compromise their independence • The growth of NGOs may be used to justify government downsizing, further undermining state authority and capacity • There are roles that only the state can perform • e.g., employment security, environmental protection, consumer protection, health and safety, national security

12. Democracy • Democracy is a certain class of relations between states and citizens • A regime is democratic to the degree that political relations between state & citizens feature broad, equal, protected and mutually binding consultation = broad & equal citizenship and protected consultation (Tilly, Democracy, 2007) • What happens to mutually binding consultation in a state dominated by NGOs? • Accountability problem

13. Haiti: Is “culture” the cause of underdevelopment? • David Brooks, “The Underlying Tragedy,” NYT, 1/14/2010 “…it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth — with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other. As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10. We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.”

14. Or the history of colonialism? Jesse Lemisch, “George Clooney’s Haiti – and Beyond,” New Politics, on the Haiti telethon: “But, in most of the show, politics were verboten, as was anything about the history of the place. This left the audience to think that a terrible natural disaster had befallen Haiti, but ignorant of: the country's origins in a successful slave rebellion (with US support for French efforts to crush it); more than a century of French draining the economy for the money value of the slaves they had lost; 19 years of occupation by the US Marines; US complicity with the Duvaliers; after earlier support, exiling of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on a US plane; the banning of the left party, Lavalas; the crimes committed against the Haitian economy by neoliberal economics via such institutions as the IMF (which, amidst the earthquake announced a wage freeze for public employees in Haiti.). This all added up to an unnatural disaster: enormous poverty, flight from the countryside to the city as the result of the destruction of Haitian agriculture by US dumping (rice) and the promise of low wage manufacturing jobs (which didn't materialize); once crowded in the city, they put anything over their heads that they could, and of course these poor structures easily collapsed. Cutting down trees to make charcoal was one of the few ways of getting money, and that produced deforestation which produced floods. It denies history to see the US as free of responsibility for these things…. Brooks has all but told us that they are a nation of welfare queens.” [http://www.newpol.org/node/205]