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Conventional theories of political economy assume that dependency on natural resources, such as oil, have a negative impact on the development of a democratic political system. While there is a developed body of work that explains the different mechanisms that shape this relationship, one mechanism, the role of the civil society, remains mostly ungrasped. As a result, the aim of this paper is to expand our understanding of the group formation effect, first discussed by Michael Ross (2001), and unpack the mechanisms that underline it, by looking at the relationship between rent from oil production, the civil society, and the rise of authoritarianism in Iraq during the period of 1945–1958. We argue that examining the relationship between these variables will help us understand the past and the current situation in Iraq, and it will improve our knowledge of the political formations and activism in oil‐producing countries in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The violent outburst of Owerri's civil society in September 1996 arguably signaled a new order in the fighting of corruption - through self-help efforts. This outburst was a demonstration of public discontent over the activities of a few rich citizens in that town who were believed to have been involved in varied corrupt practices in making 'fast' wealth. It was also a vociferous indictment on the State and its agents for ineptitude in fighting corruption, and complicity in criminal acts. Drawing from both primary and secondary sources in social research, this study critically examines the chain of events preceding, and the dynamics of the developments surrounding the societal conflicts in Owerri, Nigeria, popularly dubbed 'Otokoto Saga.' It analyzes the varied dimensions of the societal conflicts, the authentic roles of civil society agency in a 'self-help strategy' and the responses of the State (and its actors) to the inadvertent eruptions. It further shows how Owerri's civil society agency 'forced' the state to take critical steps towards the restoration of sanity in the town. The paper argues that civil society's critical awareness of its own roles in maintaining a corrupt-free society was instrumental to their violent reactions. It concludes that deep-seated fear and frustration underlined the reactions of the civil society, while moral panic and outrage triggered such reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of the public sphere and public space have gained increasing purchase within social history. This paper contributes to this literature by theoretically developing a critical approach to both concepts. By drawing upon the insights of the Bakhtin circle, as well as Marxism and Poststructuralism, the paper suggests that public spheres under capitalism are structured through the basic contradiction between capital and labour. Each public sphere may then be seen as a refracted dialogic and spatial form of this basic contradiction, and is then best viewed as a contradictory spatial entity that obtains its unique identity through different “accents” and “word signs”. The capitalist state must aim to regulate, through governance and law, dialogue within a public sphere. By focusing on the Chartist demonstration at Hyde Park, London in 1855, I show how these theories can be employed to explore how a radical social movement appropriated space by developing a working class public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s a drift away from state corporatist solutions to social welfare problems has had its parallel in an academic rediscovery of the voluntary sector. Revived confidence in non–statutory approaches often assumes two things. Firstly, that voluntary action is a vital component in civil society and that civil society itself is an attribute of liberal democracy. These ideas are central to the perceived ‘crisis of the welfare state’. They are also related to debates about political culture and the future of democracy with the institutions of civil society cast positively as ‘schools of citizenship’. Secondly, it is frequently assumed that there is an opposition in principle between the voluntary and the statutory and in some quarters an assumption (reversing an earlier presumption about the rationality of state welfare) that voluntary action is the superior mechanism (at least morally). The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, I want to reflect on the revival of interest in the role of the institutions of civil society in the history of welfare provision. Second, I will survey some recent approaches to voluntary action and ‘civil society’. Third, in the process of this survey I discuss the relevance of these approaches to the study of past states of welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Into the conventional framework of the state civil-society relationship, which usually includes the state's autonomy and the state's strength, this paper adds a dimension -- the identity of the collectivity. The collective identity is from one side the common 'symbolic space' for both the state and the actors of the civil society, and from the other side the 'battlefield' between the state, the society and the different components of the civil society. These tensions stem in a great measure from the emphasis of some aspects over others (for example the primordial vs. civic ingredients) of the collective identity. These interpretations have far reaching implications on the rules-of-the-game in the state and on the state-society relationship. Its identity is central to the determination of the various societal boundaries of the collectivity. This approach is exemplified through analysis of the building of the Israeli state and its transformation from a community to a nation-state, and again from a nation-state to a community state, in a perspective of about 75 years. The article fundamentally challenges the conventional presentation and analysis of the social and political history of Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper answers the question, 'what is the state?' as posed in Abrams (1988) and Denis (1989), by examining Sayer's (1987) realist reconception of 'relations of production' and their 'ideal superstructures'. It suggests that Sayer's alternative to 'traditional' marxism warrants a reappraisal of the relationship between Marx and Foucault. It concludes that 'civil society' and 'the state' are Janus-faces of production relations, generated by Foucault's 'disciplinary practices'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a detailed archival account of a typhoon-induced flood, this paper examines Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as practised in a late nineteenth century provincial town in the Philippines. Culture is an important determinant when considering DRR for any community as the roots of its present-day resilience as well as the causes of its vulnerabilities may lie in its history. The flood of 1887 and the account of the actions taken by the community in San Isidro challenge any assumptions about DRR in the past and hint at the origins of the vibrant civil society that is such a characteristic of Filipino society today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is informed that "State" was not a common term of argument in eighteenth-century Britain. The recent rise to popularity of the term "civil society" - sometimes defined as the institutions which mediate between the citizen and the "state"-- adds a new category to the analytical stockpile; its appearance has probably tended to narrow the range of uses people wish to make of the term "state." Approaching the eighteenth century with nineteenth-century debates in mind, historians have often been preoccupied with the eighteenth-century balance between "centre" and "locality." However, the author opines that this was not an eighteenth-century issue-- at least not quite in those terms. Related issues which were sensitive concerned the exercise of arbitrary power; infringement of chartered or personal rights; use of patronage to build up power blocs; and capture of institutions by parties. But these abuses were objectionable by whomsoever perpetrated. One of the complications confronting anyone who tries to explore the workings of eighteenth-century English government is that England was only one of the territories over which crown and parliament ruled. It is clear that the "state" which framed governance and politics in the various kingdoms and other dependencies of the British crown was a structurally complex entity, operating within a variety of political cultures.

Through the Israeli case, the article questions the validity of the Western liberal model according to which (civil) "society" and "state" are two separate entities, the state ostensibly existing outside the society and imposing its will on it. Covering five distinct historical periods, from the beginning of the century until the present, and utilizing Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony, the article surveys one of Israel's core myths, if not the core itself, that of the pioneer ( halutz ). The result exposes an intriguing system of domination, which is based on intensive activity and responsiveness of the population, and on a blurred distinction between the rulers and the ruled, between objects and subjects, and between state and society. Because of the existence of this system of domination it is difficult to talk about Israel in terms of a despotic state; hence also the obstacle to the constitution of a civil society in Israel. For this is effectively a hegemonic system of domination, which repels all social change by its ability to absorb any innovation and shape its meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]