Jasmin Lorch

Using civil society as an authoritarian legitimation strategy: Algeria and Mozambique in comparative perspective

Recent research on civil society in authoritarian regimes shows that civil society can contribute to legitimating authoritarian rule. This finding has not, however, been connected with the nascent literature on authoritarian regime legitimation. This article seeks to bridge this gap by synthesizing the relevant theoretical literature and presenting an in-depth comparative analysis of Algeria and Mozambique. We argue that in both cases the ruling authoritarian regime has used civil society as a legitimation tool. The article identifies five patterns according to which authoritarian regimes can use civil society for legitimation purposes.

State Weakness and Civil Society in Bangladesh

From 1858 to 1947, the Muslim-majority region of East Bengal, which would later become Bangladesh, formed part of colonial British India. To strengthen their control over the local population, the British colonizers relied on the zamindars, feudal landlords belonging to the Hindu faith. In 1947, East Bengal became part of Pakistan, following the two-nation theory that the Hindu and the Muslim populations of British India should live in separate states. The Pakistani government passed land reform laws that effectively abolished the zamindar system, thereby eliminating an important section of the local colonial elite (Chowdury 2010).

Do associations support authoritarian rule? Evidence from Algeria, Mozambique, and Vietnam

ABSTRACT Whether associations help to democratize authoritarian rule or support those in power is a contested issue that so far lacks a cross-regional, comparative perspective. In this article we focus on five types of associations in three post-socialist countries, situated in different world regions, that are governed by authoritarian regimes. We first explore how infrastructural and discursive state power impact such associations and vice versa. We then discuss whether these associations support the development of citizens’ collective and individual self-determination and autonomy and/or whether they negate such self-determination and autonomy – a state of affairs that is at the core of authoritarianism. Our analysis addresses decision-making in associations and three specific policy areas. We find that most of the covered associations accept or do not openly reject state/ruling party interference in their internal decision-making processes. Moreover, in most of these associations the self-determination and autonomy of members are restricted, if not negated. With respect to HIV/AIDS policy, associations in Algeria and Vietnam toe the official line, and thus contribute, unlike their counterparts in Mozambique, to negating the self-determination and autonomy of affected people and other social minorities. Looking at enterprise promotion policy, we find that the co-optation of business and professionals’ associations in all three countries effectively limits democratizing impulses. Finally, in all three countries many, but not all, of the interviewed associations support state-propagated norms concerning gender and gender relationships, thus contributing to limiting the self-determination and autonomy of women in the private sphere.

Conclusion and Debate

While both civil society and state weakness remain highly prominent subjects in the academic as well as in the international policy discourse, research on these two issues has thus far remained largely unconnected. In order to bridge this gap, this study set out to investigate whether, and if so, how state weakness influences the ability of national civil societies to emerge and persist, exert political influence and contribute to democratization. The study’s comparative findings from Bangladesh and the Philippines clearly show that state weakness can, in fact, constitute an enabling condition for civil society to emerge and persist, confirming similar observations made by the sparse existing literature on civil society in weak states (e.g. Gotze 2004, pp. 201ff.; Lorch 2006, 2008; Ottaway 2004). However, both countries have also been characterized by the existence of an ambiguous civil society, whose contributions to the national democratization process have been extremely ambivalent. More specifically, while in both countries civil society actors have exercised significant political influence, they have not always used this influence in order to promote democracy but at times also for highly undemocratic purposes. The cases of Bangladesh and the Philippines thus contradict the normative assumption that a strong civil society necessarily strengthens democracy (e.g. Ashton 2013; Cohen and Arato 1992; EC 2012; Putnam 2000; UNDP 2012; USAID 2014). Instead, both cases confirm the arguments advanced by the more empirically analytical literature on civil society that a vibrant civil society is not always good for democracy and that real, existing civil societies usually display certain dark sides, which are generally reflective of the context in which they operate (e.g. Alexander 1998; Croissant 2000; Croissant et al. 2000; Lauth 2003; Monga 2009).

Analysing Civil Society in Weak States

To explore how civil society constitutes itself in weak states and how the state and other factors, such as a country’s historical legacy, its political system, its ethnic composition, its majority religion, or its level of economic growth, influence the development of national civil societies, this study takes the empirical, analytical literature on civil society as a starting point (e.g. Alexander 1998; Guan 2004; Lauth 2003; Lewis 2001; Wischermann 2005). Notably, this literature suggests that the concept of civil society must be systematically contextualized. A relational understanding that consequently relates civil society to the context of action in which it operates is a fruitful approach to this endeavour (Lorch 2006). Building on the works of Alexander (1998, pp. 7f.), Gosewinkel (2003), Gosewinkel and Rucht (2004), Gosewinkel et al. (2004) and Croissant et al. (2000, pp. 11ff.), such a relational approach assumes that in real, existing civil societies, normative characteristics, such as “civility”, the generation of social capital and the performance of certain democratic functions, can exist only in degrees. Concurrently, the relational approach likewise supposes that real, existing civil societies will also always display certain dark sides, such as clientelism and organizational hierarchies, and that the relationship between the democratic features and dark sides within such real, existing civil societies depends on the scope of action available to civil society actors.

State Weakness and Civil Society in the Philippines

This chapter investigates how the five categories of influences on civil society in weak states laid out in the book’s theoretical analytical framework (see Chap. 2) have influenced Philippine civil society following independence. More precisely, this empirical chapter discusses how the existence of an environment in which non-state actors perform functions normally ascribed to the state—(1) an environment of power centre competition, (2) patronage and corruption, (3) violence and insecurity, (4) international donor influences, (5) conceptualized as an intervening variable—have influenced the ability of Philippine civil society to emerge, exert political influence and promote democratization. The chapter illustrates that the weakness of the Philippine state has been conducive to the growth of civil society. At the same time, its empirical findings also show, however, that the role played by Philippine civil society in the country’s democratization process has been ambiguous. This is predominantly because, just like in the case of Bangladesh, civil society actors in the Philippines have usually lacked autonomy from alternative power centres, been involved in patronage or corruption and, at times, even endorsed the use of violence, thereby mirroring the deficits of the weak state.

Mirror Images of Weak States: Civil Societies in Bangladesh and the Philippines

Both in Bangladesh and the Philippines, the weakness of the state has been conducive to the emergence and the growth of civil society (on Bangladesh see Chap. 3; on the Philippines see Chap. 4). Most notably, in both countries, the post-colonial state has often been unable or unwilling to deliver basic social services, leading to the proliferation of civil society organizations, as diverse as leftist peasant groups, religious charities, trade unions, political student groups and foreign-funded NGOs, that have catered to many of the fundamental welfare needs not met by the state. In addition, the expansion of civil society in Bangladesh and the Philippines has also been facilitated by the lack of effective state regulation, which has allowed a large variety of civil society organizations to emerge and operate without much interference by central state authorities (on the Philippines see also e.g. Abella and Dimalanta, 2003, p. 238; on Bangladesh see also e.g. WB 2005).

Gender politics, authoritarian regime resilience, and the role of civil society in Algeria and Mozambique

The question of whether and how authoritarian regimes may use gender politics to preserve their rule has attracted insufficient academic attention so far. Research on state feminism shows that non-democratic regimes often enact women-friendly policies for the purpose of maintaining power. However, this finding has not been linked to the broader research on authoritarian resilience. To address this research gap, we connect recent debates on authoritarian resilience to the research on state feminism. Subsequently, we engage in a cross-regional comparison of the use of gender politics by the authoritarian regimes of Algeria and Mozambique in order to enrich both sets of theory on the basis of empirical findings. Specifically, we ask what strategies the two authoritarian regimes employ in the areas of womens rights and gender and how these might contribute to regime resilience, focusing on the interactions between these regimes and civil society organisations (CSOs).