Re-Thinking ‘Civil Society’ in the Arab World

BEIRUT -- For years, Arab activists, most governments, and many foreign donors and scholars have viewed the realm of Arab political culture through the traditional lens of three arenas where activity takes place: governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The term "civil society" is also widely used to refer to any public associational activity that takes place in that space between the state and the family. One of the reasons that civil society has had so little impact on such widespread goals as promoting democracy and human rights in the Arab world could be that we are using outmoded categories of analysis, and analyzing power flows that may not be fully accurate.

The common assumption that greater activity by civil society and more robust NGOs would spur a more democratic culture, including greater accountability of the powerful governments that define most of the Middle East, remains frustratingly unproven. Civil society continues to flourish in many countries, but with very limited impact. So what is it doing, and why does it continue to expand?

One of the fascinating transformations in the Middle East in the past several decades has been the gradual blurring of the once clear divisions between the state, NGOs and the private sector. Two elements of this change seem especially interesting to study and understand: the increasingly shared responsibility among the state, civil society and private companies for providing citizens with basis services, and the convergence between the government and NGOs in the field of public power and authority.

After the first six decades or so of statehood and independence post-1920s, the Arab state widely monopolized the provision of basic services for its citizens, including jobs, telephones, mass media, health care, education, fresh water and other such things. Today, the provision of such services is widely shared among the state, the private sector and NGOs, in some cases with foreign donors or the UN playing a major role in providing or funding basic needs. As NGOs and private firms encroach on the realm of the state, they achieve more power and responsibility in restricted realms, though the state continues to play the role of regulator in most cases and has not disappeared.

A related important point is about quality of services. Most state services are declining in quality (education and health, especially), while most NGO and private services are of higher quality. As our societies continue to privatize, commercialize and localize service provision that had once been concentrated in the hands of the central government, NGOs and private firms will continue to expand their role in providing these services. This will have major implications for the social equity dimension of access to basic services, as the poor will increasingly rely on mediocre state services while better off and better connected citizens will turn to private sector and NGO services, thus exacerbating disparities and polarization in many Arab societies.

Equally intriguing is the issue of precisely how "non-governmental" are many NGOs in the Middle East. It is clear that in many of our societies, NGOs are created and led by members of the political, social, economic, security, tribal and (where relevant) royal elite. Such NGOs compete with the state for foreign donor funding, and often are tacitly supported by the state that sees the NGOs as a useful safety valve in their provision of services where the state has failed to meet citizen needs -- such as nursery schools, or care for the abused and disabled. NGOs often are headed by people whose day jobs are in the government, often in high places.

I suspect that NGOs in many cases are motivated not only by a desire to help others in need, but also by a desire to enter into the arena of political and public power. Small or medium NGOs that hire staff, offer services, and advocate for public policy changes provide another layer of political participation that complements existing institutions like parliament, the mass media, political parties and elections. NGOs, in many cases, are proxies for political participation in autocratic and top-heavy Arab governance systems whose formal institutions (like parliaments) have limited credibility and impact. They are in many ways a miniature government sector, often headed by the same members of the social, economic, security and political elite that has dominated the public sector for many decades.

The blurring lines between the role of the government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and foreign donors is an important area that requires not just further analysis, but a whole new approach by indigenous and foreign scholars. The flow of money, the creation of new jobs, the delivery of basic services and the articulation of public policy priorities are critical components of political power and legitimate authority, and they now involve new actors beyond governments.


Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Copyright © 2010 Rami G. Khouri - distributed by Agence Global