The Civil Society Debate in Africa
| Author | Eboe Hutchful |
| Published date | 01 March 1996 |
| Date | 01 March 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070209605100103 |
| Subject Matter | Africa's Prospects |
EBOE
HUTCHFUL
The
civil
society
debate
in
Africa
'Civil
society'
is
suddenly
all
the
rage
in
social
science
and
com-
parative
politics
circles.
Seminars,
books,
special
issues
of
jour-
nals, even
institutes
have
expounded
the
idea
of
civil
society
in
developing
countries.
'Civil
societies'
have
been
sought
-
and
apparently
found
-
in
'nascent,'
'incipient,'
or
'emerging'
(in
some
cases
re-emerging)
forms
in
places,
such
as
the
Middle
East
and
China,
where
Western
social
science
had
long
denied
their
presence
-
even
their
possibility.
Academics
are
not
the
only
ones
employing
the
concept.
Political
movements
and
lately even
non-governmental organizations
(NGos)
have
used
it,
although
how
much
in
both
cases
seems
to
vary
from
country
to
country
and
to
reflect
local
conditions and
intellectual
traditions.
The
recent
revival
of
the
concept
follows
on
the
dem-
ocratic
revolutions
in
eastern
Europe,
Latin
America, and
Africa,
and
even
earlier
on
the
rise
of
social
movements
in
the
West;
it
is
at once
the
product
of
an
attempt
by
political
actors
to
conceptualize
the
nature
of their
struggles
and
by
scholars
to
provide
a
key
to
understanding
global
political
developments.
Indeed
the
term
has
come
to
be
virtually synonymous
with
'democracy.'
The
growth
of
the
concept
in African
studies
has
been
particularly rapid.'
As
recently
as
1989
Michael
Bratton
Department
of
Africana Studies,
Wayne
State
University,
Detroit,
Michigan.
I
On
this
phenomenon,
Peter
Ekeh
remarks:
'A
content
analysis
of
the
use of
"civil
society" in
African
studies,
dating
back
to
the
1950s,
is
liable
to
demonstrate
the absence
of
this
term,
or
at
any
rate
its
thinness,
in
the
study
of
African politics
up
until the
mid-198os
and then
a
sudden
explosion
in
its
application.'
'The
constitution
of
civil
society in
African
history
and
politics,'
International
Journal
LI
WINTER
1995-96
THE
CIVIL SOCIETY
DEBATE
55
lamented
the
absence
of
the
notion
of
political
accountability
in
Africanist
writings.2
'Democracy'
was
even
rarer
in
the liter-
ature,
both
as
idea
and
as
prescription.
A
few
years
later,
how-
ever,
the
literature
is
suffused
with
references
to
civil
society.
What
is
civil
society?
Where
might
it be
located
in
Africa?
Does
it
already
exist
or
is
it
something
new?
Is
it
a
useful
ana-
lytical
tool?
In
its
chequered
history
the
concept
has
been
sub-
jected
to
diverse definitions.3
Those
offered
here
are
drawn
from
attempts
in
the
recent literature
to
apply
the
concept
to
the
circumstances
of
developing
and
newly
democratizing
coun-
tries.
Augustus
Norton
defines
civil
society
as
the
terrain
where
a
'melange
of
associations, clubs,
guilds
and
syndicates,
federa-
tions,
unions,
parties
and
groups
come
together
to
provide
a
buffer
between
the
state
and
citizen.'
In
his
view
civil
society
is
'literally
and
plainly
at
the
heart
of
participant
political
systems.'
To
Alfred
Stepan,
it
is
the
'arena
where
manifold
social
move-
ments
(such
as
neighborhood
associations,
women's
groups,
religious
groupings,
and
international
currents)
and
civic
organizations
from
all classes
(lawyers,
journalists,
trade
unions,
and
entrepreneurs,
among
others)
attempt
to
constitute
them-
selves
in
an ensemble
of
arrangements
so
that
they
can
express
themselves
and
advance
their
interests.' According
toJohn
Har-
beson,
'in
substantive
terms,
civil
society
typically
refers
to
the
point
of
agreement
on
what
those
working
rules
[of
the
political
game
or
structure
of
the
state]
should
be.'
Groups
and
associa-
tions
are
'part
of
civil
society
to
the
extent
that
they seek
to
define,
generate support
for,
or
promote
changes in
the
basic
working
rules
of
the
game
by
which
social
values
are
authori-
tatively
allocated.
In
spatial
terms,
therefore,
civil
society
is
not
in
B.
Caron,
A.
Gboyega,
and
E.
Osaghae,
eds,
Democratic
Transition
in
Africa
(Ibadan:
University
of
Ibadan
1992),
187.
2
Michael
Bratton,
'Beyond
the
state:
civil
society
and
associational
life
in
Africa,'
World
Politics
41
(April 1989),
416.
3
See,
for
example,
Jean
Cohen
and
Andrew
Arato, Civil
Society
and
Political
Theory
(Cambridge
MA:
MIT
Press
1992);John
Keane,
ed,
Civil
Society
and
the
State: New
European
Perspectives
(London:
Verso
1988);
Adam
B.
Seligman,
The
Idea
of
Civil
Society
(New
York:
Free
Press
1992).
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