Introduction: The Crucial Role of Mediators in Relations between States and Citizens

This book sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: how do citizens and state engage in the global south? The answer is not simple; it is indeed complex and multifaceted, but we argue that much of the time this engagement involves a practice of intermediation. From local to international level, citizens are almost always represented to the state through third parties that are distinguished by the intermediary role that they play. These intermediaries include political parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations, social movements, armed non-state actors, networks and individuals. For its part, the state often engages citizens through intermediaries from private service providers to civil society activists and even local militia. Intermediation is thus both widely practised and multi-directional in relations between states and citizens in the global south. Indeed, so significant is the role of intermediaries in the engagement between states and citizens that it may well be useful to unpack the commonplace conception of ‘state-society relations’ in terms of the term ‘state-intermediary-citizen’ relations.