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The Development of Civil Society in a Democratic State: The Botswana Model*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

John D. Holm ,
Patrick P. Molutsi  and
Gloria Somolekae
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Extract

Citizen influence on the modern democratic state most often occurs through social organizations demanding government responsiveness to member concerns. These organizations and their interaction with government constitute the core of modern civil society. The presence of organized groups does not in itself mean that a civil society exists. Such groups may engage in other activities such as producing collective goods for their members or controlling their members on behalf of the ruling elite. Civil society grows in a state as more and more groups engage in activities designed to maintain or change government policies.

Outside of Africa, civil society development has often preceded democratization and provided the impetus for establishing elections, as well as the leadership and resources for political parties contesting these elections. With the exception of South Africa and possibly Zimbabwe, the emergence of civil society has thus far been minimal in Africa. Social organizations are too weak to bring down authoritarian regimes, let alone shape their replacements. However, the recent democratizations are providing new opportunities for group influence relative to the state. The result is that civil society is coming into existence at the same time as the holding of elections, the organization of competitive political parties and the reforming of legislative assemblies. In effect, the development of civil society and democracy are occurring in much of Africa as parallel and related processes.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , September 1996 , pp. 43 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1996

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Footnotes

**

The authors are members of the Democracy Research Project at the University of Botswana. Dr. Molutsi and Dr. Smolekae teach at the University of Botswana, and Dr. Holm at Cleveland State University.

*

The National Endowment for Democracy in the United States provided an initial grant to undertake the interviews of group leaders, politicians and civil servants. Associates in Rural Development through a grant from USAID supported the analysis and writing of the results in 1994. Robert Charlick of ARD has played a particularly supportive intellectual role in moving this project forward. The authors are indebted to Amy Poteete, Ken Grundy, James Sperling and anonymous reviewers for the reactions they gave to earlier drafts of this paper.

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