Civic Driven Change Initiative

"Burkinabé writer and politician Joseph Ki-Zerbo said, 'On ne développe pas, on se développe' ('People aren't developed; people develop themselves'). He argued for a development strategy 'that gets its force from local realities and our own values, and which is open for all positive influences from outside'. There is a long tradition in development thinking that stresses the need for this kind of bottom-up approach. So what is new about a group of intellectuals from around the world proposing the idea of a third narrative for development, alongside 'state' and 'market': civic driven change (CDC)?..."

This paper, put forth by one of the participants in the Civic Driven Change (CDC) Initiative, fleshes out the primary concepts shaping this year-long process of thinking, writing, and debating. Supported by a number of Dutch non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and hosted by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), the CDC Initiative gelled at an international seminar held in the Hague on October 15 2008. Its purpose is to arrive at and communicate a perspective of change in societies that stems from citizens rather than states or markets - that is, to create "a strong civic narrative which extends beyond local conditions and circumstances" and which has self-determination by citizens at its core.

The tangible product of the initiative is a collection of essays and policy briefs that have been published as Volume 10 of the journal The Broker and that will later appear as a printed book. In the essay from which excerpts are included below, Frans Bieckmann distills a number of concepts from the texts and the long discussions that he participated in as a member of the core group.

Excerpts from the essay follow:

Co-creating democracy

"An important aspect of a new CDC narrative...is 're-inventing politics' or 'deepening of democracy'. In his essay, Harry Boyte quotes Mamphela Ramphele, one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, as saying, 'people have to become the agents of their own development'. This implies, according to Boyte, 'a radical shift of meanings from "representative democracy" and "participatory democracy" to "developmental democracy"'. This entails a shift from the citizen as a rights-bearing individual whose highest act is voting and demanding government be held accountable, or a citizen who deliberates and participates in civil society, to the citizen as the co-creator of a democratic society and government as a catalyst. Boyte...[continues], 'Developmental democracy focuses on [the work of growing capacities for] self-directed collective action across differences for problem solving and the creation of individual and common goods....It conceives of democracy as a society, promoting action across "state", "civil society" and "markets". It points towards institutional and cultural change'.

An important element in such a deepened democracy is 'self direction'. People and communities act based on their own values and interests – not only to satisfy their material desires but collectively and for the common good. Because of this self-direction, intellectuals and external experts acquire a different role. Instead of advising and helping, they serve local communities, especially by acting as catalysts for CDC processes. And perhaps they promote horizontal exchange between all the local CDC activities that are already taking place.

Another aspect of deepened democracy is the construction of places and processes where differences engage rather than collide. Multi-stakeholder forums and mediated events are examples, as are...regional and national social forums that try to advance radical, horizontal democracy...

Building alternatives

Strengthening civic power in relation to the state and the market is another important element in the evolving CDC narrative. Having absolute faith in the state as the best and sole supplier of services to the public is naïve....It may sometimes be compelled by the global economic system or international power relations to act against the immediate interests of its citizens...

Strengthening civic power must however go further than just countervailing power, the power to challenge the established order; citizens have a responsibility to work together to come up with alternatives themselves, without relieving the state of its own responsibilities...

That is also the crucial difference between anti-globalists and alter-globalists. The former owe their existence to a much more powerful opponent: the state, the global market, the elite, the multinationals...By contrast, Tandon [CDC Initiative participant Teivo Tandon] proposes that civic agency as such has its own intrinsic value for public good; the 'primacy of civic driven change' means the 'co-creation' of solutions for collective well-being which can't or won't be provided by the state or the market. CDC means believing in one's own strength and building up joint power.

CDC is normative

...The central concept...to distinguish CDC from all kinds of 'uncivic and undemocratic agency', is 'inclusion'. In a sense this term is an extension of the radical democratic thinking that underpins CDC, because struggles for inclusion – for participation, equality, access – are being fought everywhere...Inclusion means respecting those who are different. It also means a concern for the 'whole' of society over time and at different scales of knowledge and action...

Although there are a number of general criteria for what 'civic behaviour' entails, who determines at a more concrete level what is 'civic' and what is 'uncivic'? That question is addressed by Nilda Bullain. In her essay, Bullain writes, 'Civic action is not good in itself. Very often, civic action is based on values that are unacceptable in a democracy – racism, sexism, chauvinism, segregation, violence'....Can or should international development set a standard for what is civic and what is uncivic?...Is someone a citizen if his or her main political identity – instead of being associated with the national political system of his country – is based on ethnicity or religion, as is very often the case? How can such citizens perform 'civic' action? And, again, who determines what civic action is? Is demanding more autonomy for a specific group an expression of 'civicness', or is it exactly the opposite?...And are supposedly uncivic means...always uncivic? The answer is somewhat unsatisfactory: it depends on the context. The more unjust the situation, the more 'uncivic' behaviour is legitimate. Altering power means conflict and, sometimes, breaking the law.

Starting from reality

...Bolivian communication specialist Alfonso Gumucio Dagron...says that 'definitions of "development" are useless because what is relevant is their translation into practices that affect real lives of people. What we see is what we get'. Instead of allowing outside experts and idealists to determine what is good for people, the determination should be founded on their 'lived reality'.

Individuals usually act on the basis of what concerns them in their personal lives and their immediate surroundings; broader ideals come later...

Even people who oppose religious institutions have to be aware that individuals consciously or unconsciously act according to religious norms and values...

Power mapping

One recurrent message in the essays is that 'everyday politics' are neglected. How do you get something done in the real world?...

A first step in this endeavour is to map the powers in play and how they are being distributed and used. These powers are explained in the essays as more than formal powers in the political arena or parliament and elections. Power struggles are also fought in the fields of culture, family, community, media, knowledge supply and religion. Power expresses itself not only in formal positions but also in language and discourse...

A systematic power analysis is a condition for determining adequate strategies for CDC – for example, to detect 'tipping points', moments at which a certain change suddenly takes hold because of a specific constellation of circumstances. But also...[a]nyone who really wants to change power relations and challenge established interests is running a serious personal risk. These relations need to be researched at various levels: local, national and global.

Local global

CDC takes place at the local level....During one of the brainstorming sessions, the concept of 'free spaces' came up. In these spaces the original cultures of a neighbourhood or region and the ethnic or religious identities of the residents must be allowed to develop to their full potential as 'co-creators' of their own environment and future.

However, these local initiatives have to connect to the national and global levels, because those are the spaces in which political and economic processes increasingly take place and which, accordingly, influence the possibilities for change at the local level. CDC initiatives are not imaginary; they are already being performed, all over the world, by thousands of people. But the micro-level changes they bring about are hardly noticed outside their own communities....That is why local initiatives have to be linked horizontally in a national and even a global network...Otherwise all these initiatives have little impact.

But...how can we imagine civic driven change as a global driver of deepening democracy without it necessarily operating at global level? And how can we identify this need for upscaling and power formation with the deepening of democracy?....Difficult dilemmas, but what is clear is that they won't be solved by copying old concepts of state-centred politics. It is not a matter of creating a 'world government' or global political parties. It is learning by doing; it is experimenting. There is an urgent need for alternative concepts...

Biekart and Fowler describe in their concluding essay as a 'guiding philosophy for CDC' one where the 'co-responsibilities for sustaining the global commons for everyone stand central'. This as an alternative for the current 'over-reliance on economic growth that emphasizes accumulation over distribution and a moral and practical failure of (market-driven) partypolitics and democracy on many scales' which feeds 'instability and … disempowers citizens as agents in charge of their own development'.

Practical implications

Concrete strategies and instruments are needed to put CDC into practice. One important element, according to Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, is communication, which he distinguishes from information. Providing information is a one-way and top-down process. Communication, on the other hand, means that power will be shared. Communication enables citizens to take part in decision-making processes. Communication is also a crucial aspect in the translation of civic involvement into collective action for change. Instead of vertical flows of information, communication is about horizontal exchange and dialogue. Communication connects people and the hundreds of small CDC initiatives that take place at the local level, for example through the use of ICT [information and communication technology] but also through the active involvement of 'communicators': one of the roles NGOs can play..."

Click here for access to all the papers referenced in the above article, and for additional background information related to the CDC Initiative. In an effort to disseminate the debate, the organisers of this initiative have invited comments from any and all readers; these comments will be summarised in a forthcoming issue of The Broker. Please click here to read the comments made to date, and to contribute to the debate by responding to these comments.