Civil Society as Idea and Civil Society as Process: The Case of Ghana

Lindsay Whitfield

Oxford Development Studies, 2003, vol. 31, issue 3, 379-400

Abstract: The concept of civil society is ubiquitous in debates about democracy in Africa. This article distinguishes civil society as idea from civil society as process. The idea of civil society provides a shared language, which obscures fundamental differences. The process of civil society refers to the complex interactions of historically generated social structures, political issues, personal networks, material incentives, state resources and international linkages. In Ghana, there are continuities in the centralization of national decision-making, reinforced by international agencies, and the mobilisation, demobilisation and selective exclusion of social groups. 'Civil society' is the outcome of the process in which the idea of civil society is discursively constructed and used by donor agencies, international NGOs, the Ghanaian government and Ghanaian social organizations to legitimate their actions.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360081032000111751 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:31:y:2003:i:3:p:379-400

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CODS20

DOI: 10.1080/1360081032000111751

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Development Studies is currently edited by Jo Boyce and Frances Stewart

More articles in Oxford Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().