Jude Howell

All-China Federation of Trades Unions beyond Reform? The Slow March of Direct Elections

Since the mid-1990s trade union leaders in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong and other coastal provinces have been quietly introducing direct elections for grassroots trade union cadres, in order to nurture a stratum of grassroots trade union cadres who prioritize workers’ interests. Yet these elections have not been generalized across the country, been institutionalized through legislation or drawn droves of international observers in the way that village elections did in the 1980s and 1990s. What might have promised to be China’s ‘‘second silent revolution’’ has failed to take off. This article explores the political, structural and institutional reasons behind the piecemeal and slow spread of direct basic union elections in China. In doing so it analyses the parameters constraining the reform of the All-China Federation of Trades Unions in the direction of a more effective, worker-oriented organization.

Women's Organizations and Civil Society in China Making a Difference

This article explores the changing terrain of womens organizations in the reform period in China. It identifies the internal and external factors which have triggered both changes within the All-China Womens Federation (ACWF), the officially designated mass organization representing womens interests, as well as the emergence of new, more autonomous womens organizations. It looks closely at the influence of these organizations on government policy. While the ACWF is particularly well positioned, as a Party organization, to influence policy, the ability of new womens organizations to bring about policy change is more limited. Through the study of womens organizations the article draws broader conclusions about the changing nature of civil society in China. Though womens organizations do not have political change as their prime organizational motive, they are nevertheless symbolically important. As occupiers of non- governmental organizational space and as components of a critical public sphere, they have implicit political agency, and as such, are as much makers of herstory as its product.

Prospects for village self‐governance in China

This article explores the changes in village self‐governance in the reform period. It reflects upon the potential of village self‐governance to contribute towards a broader democratisation process in China. It begins by reviewing rural governance in the pre‐reform period, drawing attention to the factors stimulating change. It then examines the newly emerging system of village self‐governance, focussing on the village committees, village assemblies and village representative assemblies. How this new system is implemented forms the subject of the third section. Finally the article considers the potential contribution of village self‐governance towards democratisation.

The backlash against civil society in the wake of the Long War on Terror

The enthusiasm for civil society that emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the spread of democratic regimes has been replaced in recent years by a backlash against civil society on many levels and fronts. This has particularly intensified since the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the ensuing global war on terror. This article examines the causes of this backlash within the context of the ‘Long War on Terror’, describes the overt and implicit manifestations of the backlash, and reflects upon the implications for the future. It considers how the growing prominence of concerns about security and the concomitant expansion of counter-terrorist measures across the world threaten the spaces for civil society to flourish and act. It argues that while the manifestations of the backlash, such as the crackdown on NGOs in Russia and the taming of NGOs by bilateral and multilateral agencies, may appear to be disparate, unconnected phenomena, on closer inspection it is clear that they are intricately intertwined.

Self-Governance and Community A Preliminary Comparison between Villagers’ Committees and Urban Community Councils

This article has three objectives: 1) to assess the contribution of villager self-government to the development of community councils in urban China; 2) to discuss whether there are lessons to be learned from the experiments in urban community councils relevant to the building of rural communities; and 3) most importantly, to raise theoretical issues common to both villager self-government and urban community councils. In fulfilling these three aims, this article will further understanding of the expansion of grassroots democracy and increasing citizens’ participation in China. The article’s comparative approach will incorporate an analysis of the institutionalization of the ‘Four Democracies’ at the village level and the extent to which they are also being implemented in the different and varying circumstances of the urban experiments and environments. We are interested in whether the villagers’ committees and residents’ committees, especially the latter in their restyled community status, are training grounds for citizenship. The different human landscapes of village and community, however, will have a profound effect on the nature and exercise of citizenship.

Making Civil Society from the Outside – Challenges for Donors

This article explores critically donor efforts to strengthen civil society from the outside. In developing programmes to foster civil society in aid-recipient countries donors make certain assumptions about the relationships between civil society, state and market. These assumptions not only depoliticise civil society but also give rise to particular contradictions and dilemmas in the operational process. These include the illusion of plurality and inclusion, locating the forces of political change, donor dependency and the universality of civil society. It is suggested that donors need to be more realistic and modest in their goals and base their interventions on more refined analyses of the local dynamics of social and political change.

Gender and civil society : transcending boundaries

1. Introduction Jude Howell 2. Gender and Civil Society in East Central Europe Barbara Einhorn and Charlotte Sever 3. Womens Organisations and Civil Society in China: Making a Difference Jude Howell 4. Women in Movement: Transformations in African Political Landscapes Aili Mari Tripp 5. Gender and Civil Society in the Middle East Nadje Al-Ali 6. The Discourse of Dangdut: Gender and Civil Society in Indonesia Diane Mulligan 7. Chilean Feminism(s) in the 1990s: Paradoxes of an Unfinished Transition Marcela Rios Tobar 8. Impact of Feminist Civil Society and Political Alliances on Gender Policies in Mexico Linda S. Stevenson 9. The Dimensions and Policy Impact of Feminist Civil Society: Democratic Policy Making on Violence Against Women in the Fifty U.S. States S.L.Weldon 10. Who is the Real Civil Society? Womens Groups versus Pro-Family Groups at the International Criminal Court Negotations Marlies Glaius Conclusion Jude Howell

The struggle for survival: Prospects for the Women's Federation in Post-Mao China

Abstract The process of economic reform introduced under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in 1978 has not only restructured society but also reconstituted gender relations. For women the consequences have been ambiguous. On the one hand, the introduction of market forces has opened up new opportunities in the economic, social and cultural spheres, but on the other hand it has reinforced old patterns of gender subordination and created new forms of oppression. It is within this context of rapid socioeconomic transformation that the All-China Womens Federation faces a severe challenge. This article explores the attempts of the All-China Womens Federation to refashion itself in the face of a rapidly changing society. Given that the UN Fourth World Conference on Women took place in 1995 in Beijing, it is an apt moment to reflect both upon the future prospects of this organization and the respective roles of state and civil society organizations in addressing gender issues. With the rise of new womens organizations over the last decade and particularly in the run-up to the World Conference, the All-China Womens Federation is desperately trying to find a new identity. In doing so it has to address the acute dilemma of how best to reconcile the often competing and conflictual interests of its members and the Chinese Communist Party.

Changing Donor Policy and Practice in Civil Society in the Post-9/11 Aid Context

Abstract This article argues that the global ‘War on Terror’ regime has contributed in complex and differentiated ways to the increasing securitisation of development policy and practice. The global ‘War on Terror’ regime refers to a complex and contradictory weaving of discourses, political alliances, policy and legislative changes, institutional arrangements and practices. This is manifest in aid rhetoric, policy discourse, institutional convergence and programming. These processes have in turn affected the way donor agencies engage with non-governmental actors. On the one hand they have led to new forms of control over charitable agencies; on the other hand they have created new opportunities for interaction and resource access to ‘newly discovered’ civil society actors such as Muslim organisations and communities. The article explores these issues through the lens of development policy and practice by four donor countries, namely, the USA, Sweden, the UK and Australia.

Women's political participation in China: in whose interests elections?

This article takes up the issue of womens political participation in village committees in China. Of interest is the decline in and continuing low level of womens political participation in village governance structures in the reform period, and particularly following the widespread introduction of competitive village elections since 1988. The dominant explanation given for womens numerical under-representation in village committees, and in politics more generally, focuses on womens lack of self-confidence, which inhibits them from standing as candidates, and on the enduring drag of ‘feudal’ attitudes, which construct women as inferior to men, and therefore not capable of leadership. These two factors combined have in turn a material effect, as son-preference advantages boys in access to basic schooling, who thus, particularly in poorer rural areas, end up with higher levels of education, and greater opportunities in waged employment. The common solution adopted by the All-China Womens Federation (ACWF), Chinas largest womens organisation, lies in a two-pronged attack: first in the ideological realm, targeting men and womens sexist attitudes and concomitantly promoting a discourse of equality, and second, in the material realm by raising womens skills. It is argued here that this dominant text on womens under-representation in village committees masks a more complex conjuncture of variables that shape womens position in local politics. Social practices, economic structures, institutional norms and procedures, and political culture all prey on, revitalise and reproduce gendered notions of the appropriate place of women and men in political life.