Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Prof. Iosif Diskin
Civil Society in the Modern World: Role and Impact
AICESIS Report, concept note
materials for discussion
at the AICESIS General Assembly session
in Bucharest, Romania
The incentive to draft the “Civil Society in the Modern World: Role and Impact”
report is aimed at:
- Informing members of AICESIS on the state of civil society in various countries
of the world, problems and goals of development;
- Forging AICESIS common perception of the role and impact of the civil society
institutions in the process of shaping and implementing national economic and
social development strategies;
- Presenting national experts’ evaluations regarding the level of engagement,
cohesion and impact of various civic communities on performance of national
social, economic and governmental institutions.
1. Role and functions of civil society in social and economic development,
enhancement of efficiency of social, economic and governmental institutions
Civil society may be described as a community of those who share values of
solidarity, social equity and democracy, esteem civic engagement, accountability
and intolerance of any violations of human rights and freedoms. The principal
interest of civil society is in creating an efficient and widely respected system of
social, economic and political institutions.
Institutions’ efficiency depends heavily on social conditions (D. North), with the
primary importance of moral foundations. Without them, even the most complete
formal institutions would be substituted by absolutely different, typically
disgusting social practices. Civil society united by common values and universally
acclaimed ethical and moral patterns may provide a source of regulatory and
institutional imperatives for all the other social subsystems.
Mandatory requirements for creating necessary social conditions produce demand
for specific social resources which can be provided exclusively by civil society.
These are, first of all, civic engagement and accountability, solidarity, care for the
common good, protection of human rights and freedoms.
Dialogue between a government and civil society, social control based on the
values of civil society can restrain governmental institutions, making their work
accountable and efficient, free from excessive red tape, let alone corruption.
Accountability of civil society is an important value, whose contribution in
national development should be increasing. Institutions of civil society have to
maintain a constant debate about prospects of national economic and social
development. This would make civic activists feel involved in implementation of
national goals and objectives, and provide feedback between the purposes of
development of civil society, on the one hand, and operation of its institutions, on
the other.
Interdependence of civil society and governmental institutions should provide
quality of government performance matching formal parameters and, above all,
meeting people’s needs, creating social environment where people would perceive
government as genuinely caring about their needsа.
Civil society is meant to supplement governmental institutions in giving “human
dimension” to the goals of economic, social and political development, initiate real
actions in tune with people’s everyday wants, needs and concerns.
Institutionalization and accountability of civil society are important preconditions
for its involvement in a responsible debate meant to produce a social contract with
the state.
It should be stressed that institutional efficiency as a factor of national
competitiveness gives the strongest impetus to dynamic and productive
economic development. Improvement of regulatory legal framework is predicated
upon the institutional enhancement. It is meaningless to pass populist legislation
detached from the real life, that would undermine credibility of the law – an
essential precondition of institutional efficiency. Legislative process and law
enforcement should be based on the current social and economic settings and
strengthen moral foundations of institutional systems.
The main priorities are horizontal accountability and drastic increase in activity of
business associations, including their subdivisions responsible for compliance with
business ethics.
Civil society institutions are aimed to control and monitor the activities of
business associations to make them fulfil their civic duties. This pressure should
result in mutually beneficent and efficient control and self-control of the respective
institutions. Development of civilian control over private enterprises in accordance
with the interests of society is a primary task. Such control would allow to detect
violations of the law, primarily the rights of consumers (for instance, counterfeit
products, false technical specifications, etc.)
At the same time, introduction of the civilian control system in this sphere requires
understanding of its specific features. Civilian control cannot be allowed to turn
into a tool for unfair competition, or another barrier for dynamic economic
development.
Civil society should make efforts towards building a stronger culture of social
accountability of business. Major importance here belongs to social partnership
and integrated relationship with local communities, making it possible not only to
tap into their resources, but also to augment their human and social capital.
Importance of ethical and, correspondingly, institutional transformations in the
community sector rests on the high value of social justice, which in the
community sector has been constantly challenged. Civil society is very sensitive to
any violations of social justice in education, healthcare, cultural, labor or social
assistance systems. Community sector should be systematically scrutinized and
impacted by civil society.
So, it is mandatory to put forward new approaches towards social equity that
would meet ethical norms as well as national social and cultural circumstances and
needs of further development. Otherwise, growth of ethically acceptable and
efficient institutions would be significantly impeded.
2. Civil society in the modern world: records of international comparative
studies
1. The CIVICUS Civil Society Index, CSI — CIVICUS» (the Civil Society Index,
CSI)
It is an action-research project that aims to assess the state of civil society in
countries around the world. It conceptualizes civil society as a social area outside
family, state and market created by individuals, groups of individuals,
organizations and agencies to promote their common interests.
2. The Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (CNP), John’s Hopkins University
It is a systematic effort to analyze the scope, structure, financing, and role of the
private nonprofit sector in countries around the world in order to enrich our
understanding of this sector, and to provide a sounder basis for both public and
private action towards it. Now it operates in more than 45 countries. The project
estimates three indexes: capacity – the size of a civil society and magnitude of
mobilized efforts; sustainability – the ability of a civil society to maintain itself
from legal, financial and social mobilization perspectives; impact – contribution of
civil society into economic and political life of a country.
3. The UN Nonprofit Handbook Project – John’s Hopkins University
This project offers countries a standard set of guidelines for highlighting the
accounts of the nonprofit sector so that it can be seen and analyzed as a distinct
sector in national economic accounts.
The resulting “satellite accounts on non-profit institutions” pull together a much
more comprehensive and reliable picture of the civil society sector, making it
possible to gauge its contribution and track its evolution over time. As part of this
process, statistical agencies are also called on to estimate the scale and value of the
volunteer work these organizations mobilize and to include this in estimates of
economic activity.
4. CSO Sustainability Index – USAID
The Index estimates general state and sustainability of civil society for the needs of
policy-making. Currently the project covers 29 countries in Europe and 25
countries in Africa. The Index analyzes and assigns scores to seven interrelated
dimensions: legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability,
advocacy, service provision, infrastructure, and public image.
5. Better Life Index – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
This Index is based on 11 topics, including civic engagement, that virtually
estimates formal procedures facilitating involvement of citizens, business groups
and civil organizations in democracy through the two indicators: consultation on
rule-making and voter turnout.
The main values of civil society should be analyzed and evaluated:
 personal freedom;
 respect for equality of all before the law;






privacy;
solidarity, mutual assistance, mutually beneficial relationship;
active engagement in social life;
social equity, equitable income distribution;
charity, help for the needy;
tolerance, respect for individual, social, religious and cultural diversity,
respect for each other.
3. Impact of national civic communities on performance of social, economic
and governmental institutions (research by the AICESIS member-states)
The third chapter of the Report should be based on the expert poll among the
AICESIS member-states, wherein they would be offered to share information on
civil society development in their respective countries in accordance with the
following indicators:
- Indicators measuring engagement and accountability of civil society
 contribution of civil society organizations and civic communities to the
process shaping the values of social engagement and accountability;
 participation of civil society organizations and civic communities in the
process of shaping moral and institutional norms necessary for functioning
of economic, social and governmental institutions;
 role of civil society organizations and civic communities in mobilization of
people and their engagement in civil initiatives in various spheres;
 involvement of civil society organizations and civic communities in charity
projects;
 level of coherence between corporate structures and civil society
organizations;
 level of impact of corporate structures and civil society organizations on the
process of shaping their own economic and social positions.
- Participation of civil society in addressing urgent issues of national
economic and social development
 engagement of civil society organizations and civic communities in the
process of shaping national agendas and their public discussion;
 involvement of civil society organizations and civic communities in debate
on priority issues of economic and social development;
 role of civil society organizations and civic communities in the dialogue
between government and society (forms, methods, results);
 representation of civil society organizations and civic communities in
official consultative and expert bodies, evaluation of the results of these
activities;
 participation of civil society organizations and civic communities in civil
control over executive authorities;
 contribution of civil society to the reduction of social inequality, facilitation
of fruitful social engagement, creation of human and social capital.
- Regulations on civil society organizations in different countries
Conclusions and recommendations of AICESIS
The final chapter of the Report is intended to sum up:
- current problems and contradictions in civil society development worldwide;
- obstacles for increasing the contribution of civil society organizations and civic
communities in addressing the urgent issues of economic and social development;
- priorities for civil society organizations and civic communities in the field of
national economic and social development.