Civil Society, Governance and Conflict Resolution in the Caribbean

• Author: Cedric Grant
• Pages: 291-316

Civil Society, Governance and Conflict Resolution 291

Introduction

Civil Society is credited with contributing significantly to the tide that

created, as Samuel P. Huntington characterised it, “The Third Wave of

Democratization”.1 Expressing itself in the Solidarity Movement, the civil society

element of the tide first washed the polluted shores of Poland in the 1970s.

Since then, there has been a widening of the amplitude of the interests in civil

society. A new salience has been accorded to non-state actors, particularly non-

governmental organisations (NGOs) whose interest and activities straddle the

whole gamut of human endeavour including charity and welfare; the

advancement of the interests of the disadvantaged and the marginalised,

especially the poor; gender equity; human rights; the protection of the

environment; and security issues. The salience of non-state actors also resulted

from other factors. One is the inadequacy of the paradigms for development

previously utilised. Another is the deleterious impact on the various sectors of

the society of the unrestrained application of market forces being employed as

the prime determinant for economic organisation. Yet another is the re-

evaluation of the role of the state and its consequential de-emphasis in economic

activities.2

As the idea of civil society became persuasive, there emerged a growing

consensus on the need to strengthen civil society with the goal of improving

governance globally, regionally, and nationally. The influence of civil society

has become so pronounced in the conduct of global affairs that the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992 was

considered “citizenized” and the United Nations Conference on Women and

Development in Beijing in 1995 “feminized”.3 International financial and

development agencies and bilateral donors have also elevated civil society,

both as a concept and a phenomenon, into an organising principle. Expanding

Civil SoCiety, GovernanCe and

ConfliCt reSolution in the

Caribbean

CEDRIC GRANT

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

292 STATE, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

the participation of civil society through policies that improve associational life

and increase local community control of decision making is as much a

preoccupation in democracies that are considered mature as it is in those in

which democratic transition and consolidation are underway.4

Within the Caribbean, civil society was accorded prominence when the

West Indian Commission (WIC) proposed in 1992 that the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) adopt, as an additional compass in the promotion of democracy

and good governance within the region, a Charter of Civil Society for the

Caribbean Community5. In a sense the WIC recommended that the Community

should become the standard setter of democratic norms. Ten years later, in 2002,

and following several related regional initiatives, a dialogue, which CARICOM

heads of government had decided in 1999 to hold with civil society, resulted in

the Liliendaal Statement of Principles on “Forward Together”.6

This study will focus on the role of civil society in governance in the region

in the intervening years. It will address the definitional problems that the term

civil society poses. The study will then examine the role of CARICOM and that

of civil society within it in terms of both regional and national governance. The

concluding section will consist of a summation of the study.

Civil Society: Definitional ProblemCivil Society: Definitional Problem

Civil Society: Definitional ProblemCivil Society: Definitional Problem

Civil Society: Definitional Problem

Civil society poses a number of conceptual difficulties.7 The concept lacks

clarity and analytical rigour and is highly contestable. In addition to private,

voluntary, largely self-supporting organisations functioning in the public sphere,

civil society frequently embraces the scholarly community many of whose

members are associated with public or government institutions. Civil society

also counts economic groups (productive and commercial associations and

networks) among its vast array of organisations. This addition reinforces the

perception that politics and economics provide an enabling environment for

each other. The question that arises is whether this close, almost umbilical

relationship, means that the definition of civil society encompasses business

(the market) as well or whether the market constitutes a separate, “private”

sphere in which civil society is a stakeholder.8

There is greater certainty in identifying civil society with political action.

Yet, political thinkers have distinguished “civil” from “political” society.9

Boundary becomes an issue when civil society moves beyond aligning itself

against the abuse of state power and engages in the pursuit, acquisition, and

exercise of that power. This ambiguity creates difficulty for civil society

organisations in responding to the claims of their critics that they are justified

in labelling them “political” rather than “civil”, especially if they coalesce with

political parties in pursuit of their goals.