Civil Society Marches Toward Global Governance

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Wojtek:
>For some, however, (including myself) "civil society" simply denotes
>voluntary, civic and self-help organizations collectively.  I hate the the
>acronyms susch as NGO, NPO or Third sector because they refer to
>neo-classical ideology that divides the economy into the "private " and
>"public" sectors, depneding on the kind of goods they produce.  Nonprofits,
>ngos etc. are supposed to be alternative to government producers of public
>goods.  So instead of using those ideologically charged terms I prefer
>"civil society" which seems to be more neutral, but it is not perfect
>either.  In my recent writings on the subject I propose still another term
>as an alternative: social proximity organizations (which is grounded in
>institutional organizational theory).

What do you think of the promotion of ideas of and international "aids" for
"civil society" in the Eastern European countries (before and after the
fall of socialism)?  How do your remarks upon religion square with your
thought on "civil society," in that churches and other religious orgs may
be thought of as "social proximity organizations" par excellence in the
period when unions and other secular left orgs are weak?  (These aren't
rhetorical questions -- just a sequel to my offlist query.)

Yoshie