Civil Society and the Governance of Development

Since the end of the Cold War, civil society organizations (CSOs) have increasingly targeted international organizations (IOs) and other global governance institutions (GGIs). Sometimes this has taken the forms of mass protests expressing grave critique or outright refusal, as was the case with the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999, subsequently referred to as the Battle of Seattle, and similar protest events directed against economic globalization in the years that followed. At other occasions civil society actors have formed campaigns to influence GGIs in a particular area. An example is the Global Campaign for Decent Work and Rights for Domestic Workers which, in 2011, succeeded in having the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopt its Domestic Workers Convention. Besides, a large share of political engagement is of a slow and continuous character, as when CSOs strive to affect policy by participating in consultations and lobbying individual staff members. A broad range of CSOs, for instance, participate in more or less frequent consultations concerning overarching policies as well as specific projects of multilateral development banks. These varied examples show how organized civil society activism is not restricted to the local and national political arenas, but increasingly target GGIs as well. They also demonstrate the different forms this activism takes.

This chapter continues the re-conceptualization of CSO-GGI relations in terms of opposition, which was initiated in chapter 1, and it also provides a crucial contextual backdrop to our area of inquiry. It draws out some of the more general points of our argumentation, whereas the analytical framework is specified in chapter 3. The structure is as follows. First, we sketch the historical evolvement of CSO-GGI relations and pinpoint some major current trends. Second, we discuss agency in relation to proposed theoretical explanations of the evolvement of this relationship. Third, we move from the notion of collective agency to introduce our conception of ‘oppositional felds’. Fourth, we present and defend our definition of opposition in global governance, through an engagement with the literature on opposition in comparative politics, as well as with the literature on resistance to global governance.

This chapter presents the analytical framework that guides our empirical investigations. The frst part of the chapter is introductory. It recapitulates and discusses our definition of opposition in global governance and presents an overview of the types of agents in oppositional fields. In the second part of the chapter, we elaborate on the analytical tools used for answering our second research question — What is the pattern of civil society opposition targeting GGIs? At this point the aim is to find ways of characterizing the ‘oppositional’ field of CSOs targeting a particular GGI. The third and fourth parts of the chapter are related to our third research question — How can CSOs’ choice of strategy towards a particular GGI be explained? — and turn attention to the strategies of individual CSOs. We first present the different existing types of strategies and then develop a model for explaining CSOs’ choice of oppositional strategy towards a particular GGI.

In this chapter we analyse the oppositional field surrounding the EU’s policies and practices of aid and development cooperation and the strategies used by various opposition groups in this field. We begin with a brief description of the main features of the EU and its activities related to development cooperation and then turn to an analysis of the oppositional field. The next section contains an analysis of the political opportunity structure providing access and elite allies for civil society opposition. Then follows a section describing and explaining different inside and outside strategies that are applied by different opposition actors targeting the EU. Finally, we offer some conclusions from this case study.

In this chapter we analyse the oppositional field surrounding ADB and the strategies used by various opposition groups targeting this GGI. We begin with a brief description of the main features of this particular GGI and then turn to an analysis of the oppositional field. The next section contains an analysis of the political opportunity structure providing access and elite allies for some civil society opposition. Then follows a section describing and explaining different inside and outside strategies applied by various opposition actors targeting ADB. Finally, we offer some conclusions from this case study.

In our final case study we turn attention to the oppositional field encircling the Global Forum on Migration and Development and CSO strategies towards it. After a brief introduction to the GFMD below, the next part of the chapter moves on to exploring the oppositional field. The following section details the political opportunity structure; we then proceed to the advocacy strategies chosen by various CSOs. The final part sums up the main findings.

In this chapter we first summarize our findings from the case studies and make comparisons across cases, answering our second and third research questions on the patterns and strategies of opposition. Second, we discuss the democratic dimensions of opposition in global governance, arguing that this is well captured both through notions of ‘counter-democracy’ (Rosanvallon 2008) and ‘monitory democracy’ (Keane 2009) and — especially in the field of development — a focus on global justice as a prerequisite for a more substantial form of global democracy. Finally, we return to our first research question on the re-conceptualization of CSO-GGI relations in terms of ‘opposition’ and discuss some further implications of this for research on civil society activism in a global governance context. We also suggest directions for future research in this field.