West Vs. East
...is not imposed by the state. Some believe, it only includes political activity engaged in through "nonprofit organizations" or NGOs. Others believe that, this includes any form of voluntary participation, whether in the public or private sector, religious or non religious, political or apolitical. Civil society includes not just the citizens who participate but also the institutions they participate in. These groups are called "civil society organizations" or "CSOs." . This is the civil societies strong point, that those CSOs are well manned and powerful. Another point is a civic culture, in which a majority of the people think their government is legitimate and that their institutions (if not the leaders at any particular moment) can be trusted they are doing the best for the people as a whole and not just a small group of elite. Another point is "social capital", this is the citizen version of economic capital. It is an important resource gathered by civil society that can be expended when a society finds itself in crisis. There is acknowledgment that civil society, civic culture, and social capital are all important for strengthening a democracy and also aiding to conflict resolution.
The U.S. for many years has provided large amounts of funding and training to Arab NGOs. The goal is to promote democracies, but such assistance has not achieved much in this regard. For civil society to contribute to democratic political change, a critical mass of civil society organizations must develop three main attributes: autonomy from regimes, a pro-democracy agenda, and the ability to build coalitions. Although NGOs have grown in number in the region in the past decade, these conditions have not yet been met.
In addition, the United States brings its own problems to its relationship with civil society in the Middle East. These include the narrow range of...
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