CIVIL SOCIETY

ORGANIZATIONS AND
SOCIAL MOVEMENT
 CIVIL SOCIETY
• Is the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that
manifest and will of citizens
• Are basically non-government members of the society that promote the
interest of the public
• Known to champion issues to the marginalized members of the society, such
as issues on human rights, labor rights, environmental protection and poverty.
• Citizen participation in political processes.
• Arena of uncovered collective action around shared interests, purposes and
values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state,
family and market. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces,
actors, and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy
and power
INTEREST GROUPS:CONCEPTUAL
TRADITIONS
• Traditional view: politics = formal structure of government
• Alternate perspective: interest group approach politics =
government + citizen groups & their actions = interaction of
social groups
• Theoretical proponents:
Bentley: group is the basic unit of all political life
Latham: organized groups are structures of power; politics
is the struggle of groups
Truman: uniformities of behavior through these groups:
INTEREST GROUPS:
• Any groups that, on the basis of one or more shared
attitudes, makes certain claim upon other groups in
society for the establishment, maintenance, or
enhancement of forms of behavior that are implied
by the shared attitudes.
• Organized organizations that engage in activity
relatives to governmental decisions.
• Organizations that attempt to influence public policy
INTEREST GROUPS:CHARACTERISITCS
• FORMAL STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZATION
• ARTICULATION & AGGREGATION OF INTERESTS
• ACTING WITHIN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
• INFLUENCING EXTERNAL POWER
• REPRESENTATION OF POLITICAL INTERESTS
• LOBBYING E.G. BUILDING PUBLIC PRESSURE USING
MEDIA ORGANIZING RALLIES & DEMONSTRATIONS
FORMING ALLIANCES & COALITIONS
NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs)
• Non-governmental Aid Organizations (NGOs) provide
assistance to people for a little or no fee. NGOs fall
into the category of civil society because they are not
operated by the government.
• Non-membership organization formed for providing
welfare and development services to the poor
• Private, non-profit, legal, small, focused usually
works with peoples’ organizations (Pos)
NGOs: Emergence
• Fill a gap in the function of the government
• stimulating agent for community
development
• Create opportunities for the politically
marginalized to become active participants
in the socio-political processes of society.
NGOs: Role
• Playing as an intermediary mechanism
between those who have power & those
who have none:
1. play as an alternative institutional setting to political
parties, articulating & aggregating socially relevant interests
2. supplements government’s social delivery mechanisms
3. privatizes policy implementation
 TYPOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE NGOs
• DIANGOs (DEVELOPMENT, JUSTICE AND ADVOCACY NGOs)
- commonly called development NGOs
- perform direct and indirect support service functions with Pos
• FUNDANGOs (Funding agency NGOs or Philanthropic Foundations)
- grant-giving organizations linked to grassroots organizations through providing financial
and other forms of support
• MUNGOs (Mutant NGOs)
- largely composed of government-run NGOs that are essentially extensions of the state
or personal interests of state actors
• COME NGOs (Fly-by-Night or proper NGOs)
- fly-by-night organizations that package proposals to attract outside funding and
promptly disappear with the funds.
HISTORICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION OF
PHILIPPINE CIVIL SOCIETY
• Intensifying Unrest, Alarming Protest: The Rise of Militancy
- 1960s: political and economic exploitation by the ruling elite
- rapid mobilization of revolutionary mass organization
- emergence of a movement for grassroots development
• Repression. Co-potation: The way to Innovation &
Expansion
- declaration of martial law in 1972
- Marcos dictatorship (failure to address problems of development)
• Assassination, Revolution: Towards Participation & Democratization
- Ninoy Aquino assassination (1983) – 2nd wave of activism”
- “People Power Revolution” (1986)
- 1987 Constitution: encourages formation; support for regional NGOs:
respect of their role; right to participate in decision making; consultation
mechanisms
- 1991 Local Government Code: NGOs as representations of peoples’
interest
• Democratization Movements
- EDSA Dos – 2001
- EDSA Tres
- Anti-Charter Change
5 CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE PHILIPPINE
POLITICS
• 5 AREAS FOR NGOs PARTICIPATION IN ELECTORAL
PROCESSES
1. Advocacy for electoral reforms
2. the raising of political consciousness
3. advancement of the people’s platform or agenda in elections
4. direct participation through the fielding of and campaigning
for chosen candidates
5. post-election activities.
 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
THEREFORE:
• Play an essential role in democratizing politics and governance facilitate
participation of the people in the policy-making and execution process of
government
• “key participant political force”
• Role in enhancing democracy
• Important institutional vehicles ability to influence
• As organizers: forming community & popular grassroots organizations
• As advocates: mobilizing, articulating people’s interests, political demands, and
institutional reforms
• As mediators: linking the powerful and disempowered strata of the society
• As deliveries: alternative mechanism for delivery of social services
 ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY
• Civil Society as an instrument for securing rights and interest at
the people:
- Civil society works for discharging several economic, social, cultural, moral
and other responsibilities which fall in the domain of private activities
• Growing Strength as Role of Civil Society in our country:
- In our country the civil society has been becoming more and more aware,
alert
• Need of Civil Society in undemocratic states:
- Civil society needed in an authoritarian system because of overthrow of
authoritarian regime and replace it with democratic system
 WHAT IS SOCIAL MOVEMENT?
• Social Movement are large informal groupings of individuals or
organizations which focus on specific political or social issues.
• Cultural Anthropologist David F. Aberle identified four kinds of
Social Movements.
- alternative social movement
- redemptive social movement
- reformative social movement
- revolutionary social movement
• Alternative Social Movement- are the individual
level and advocate
• Redemptive Social Movement – are at the
individual level and advocate radical changes
• Reformative Social Movement – occur at a
broader group or societal level and advocate for minor
changes
• Revolutionary Social Movement – occur at a
broader group or societal level and advocate for a
radical change.