Social Capital as Potential for Self-Governance

Political Science Y673Week 5

February 11, 2004

Social Capital as Potential for Self-Governance

• Understanding social capital• Social capital and survival strategies in

violent conflict (Experience from Liberia)• Can we understand how social capital is

cultivated? • Can we do comparative studies of local

self-governance from social capital perspective? (Proposed Urban database project of Consortium)

Understanding Social Capital

• Conceptual foundations• Social capital and other types of capital• Social capital and collective action

Social Capital and Survival Strategies in Conflict Areas

(Liberian experience)• Distinguishing productive social capital

from “harmful” social capital • Security strategies• Conflict resolution mechanisms• Economic networks• Health services

Building social capital about Social Capital

• Consortium as social capital• Urban database project for long-term

study of social capital• Project approach

– Concept paper– Categories of variables

Understanding Social Capital

• Definitions of social capital• Forms of social capital • Social capital and survival strategies in

conflict areas• Creating a database for comparative study

of local self-governance

Definitions of Social Capital

• Tocquevillean underpinnings:– The habit of forming associations:

• Tocqueville observed “an immense assemblage of associations. “Americans of all ages, all conditions and all dispositions constantly form associations.”

“Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.”

Tocquevillean Underpinnings (cont.)

• Conditions of equality could breed tyranny; citizens therefore combine their efforts to preserve freedom.

• Americans combat individualism by the principle of self-interest rightly understood

Social Capital broadly Understood as:

• A quality in the structure of relationships that leads to collective action (Coleman)

• Attributes of individuals and their relationships

that enhance ability for collective action. (E.Ostrom & Ahn)

• Features of social organization that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions (Putnam)

Social Capital as

• Cause as well as collective outcome• Glue that makes most other forms of

capital productive• Supplier of benefits to some and negative

externalities to others

Forms of Social Capital

• Obligations• Expectations• Trustworthiness of structures(Coleman, 1988)

Forms of Social Capital(Cont.)

• Norms– Beliefs that foster collective action– Trustworthiness and willingness to develop trusting relationships– Reciprocity

• Networks– Loose associations of small groups

• Institutions– Rules-in-use

(E.Ostrom)

Forms of social capital (cont.)

• Trust• Norms• Networks(Putnam, 1993)

Social Capital helps us understand how communities establish:

• Solidarity (internal bonds)• Horizontal relationships (between

communities)• Vertical linkages (with higher authorities)

Bonding

Bridging

Linking

Studies of Survival Strategies

• Typically focus on how behavior of belligerent parties affect local people

• How external actors create mitigating conditions– “zones of peace”– “security corridors”

• Not frequently on strategies devised by local people themselves

Examples of Survival Strategies of local communities

• Paez community in Columbian armed conflict – non-violent resistance

• Odudwa Peoples Congress of Nigeria – armed resistance when necessary

• Shack/Slum Dwellers Association of India – extensive horizontal networks

Social Capital and Survival Strategies in Liberia

Total Population of 2.7 million (1989)1million displaced in or near capital 0.75 million refugees 0.75 million displaced in other parts of country 0.20 million killed

Social Capital and Survival Strategies

Need for Survival Strategies:Due to widespread plunder and pillage

– Humanitarian assistance unable to meet needs

• Arrives late• Limited access • Insufficient supplies• Other reasons associated with conflict situations

Making Use of Social Capital for survival

• “Harmful” use: – Predatory Networks

• Productive use: – local security– Conflict mitigation and resolution– Community welfare

Predator Networks

• Gangs of Armed robbers• “Black money” boys• Sex trade (with all its dangers including

the spread of HIV/AIDS)• Illicit Trade (especially in coffee and

cocoa)

Security Strategies

In urban areas:• community watches (urban)• Locally-organized security units form strategic

alliances with armed groups

In rural areas:• Poro protection

– Retreat to forest– Cooptation of local leadership of armed group

Conflict Resolution Mechanisms • Inter-religious organizations

– Interfaith Council– Poro-Islamic dialogue

• Pan-ethnic organizations– Poro solidarity

• Inter-ethnic organizations– Southeastern Women Development Associations – Youth of mixed ethnic backgrounds – Urban-based elite networks

Community welfare networks

• Clan and township-based organizations(strong support from members abroad)

• Women Development Associations• Faith-based organizations

– Pentecostal – Alladura

Economic Networks

• Trading networks of young women• Wheelbarrow organization• Market women organizations

Health Service Networks

• MERCI (Medical Emergency and Relief Cooperation)

Building Social Capital to Build Social Capital

• Local communities have been able to build productive social capital

• Their future ability to do so is essential to their possible survival

• Intervention efforts should focus on helping local communities build on existing productive networks and rebuild others disrupted by conflict

• This will help offset predatory social capital that is so easy for others to build

Building Social Capital about Social Capital

• We need to know more about how social capital is cultivated

• Requires detail studies over time, especially comparative studies

• A goal of the Consortium for Self-Governance in Africa (CSGA)

The Urban Database Project

• Create a format and collect data on various aspects of community-based organizations and local self-governance over time

• Provide a concrete focus for the work of scholars associated with Consortium

• Undertake long-term and comparative studies of local self-governance experience in Africa, beginning with urban areas

How we hope to proceed

• Concept paper – Explains what project proposes to do– Delineates initial categories or format for

database– Proposes how we proceed in setting up

project• Start pilot project• Establish long-term project after review of

pilot project

Concept paper

• Project will collect data for long-term and comparative studies of governance at the level of local communities

• Focus will be on the role of community-based organizations in the provision of public goods

Concept paper (cont.)

• Community defined as people of shared understanding (shared language, shared aspirations, etc.) who agree that a given spatial area is their home domain.

• Community-based organization as local community-based unit of collective action

• Public goods: security, community health & sanitation, roadways and others

Initial categories of variables on CBOs

• Category 1: goals & life cycles• Category 2: success (objectively &

subjectively measured)• Category 3: internal organization • Category 4: horizontal relationships • Category 5: vertical linkages• Category 6: external linkages

Category 1: Goals & Life Cycles of CBOs

• Original purpose for organizing CBO• Initial entrepreneurs & sources of

resources• Subsequent goals, entrepreneurs &

resources• How did subsequent changes come

about?

Category2:Success of CBO

• CBOs evaluation of level of successin achieving each original and subsequent goal

• Objective measures of success

Category 3:Internal organization of CBO

• Boundary rules– Regarding membership & physical boundaries

• Decision-making– Constitutional, collective choice & operational

• Monitoring mechanisms• Sanctions regime• Dispute resolution mechanisms

Category 4:Horizontal relationships

• Nature of relationships with other CBOs in same community– CBOs with same goals – CBOs with complementary goals– Are relationships mutually reinforcing, productively

competitive, mutually destructive?– Member of community development association

• Relationship with CBOs in neighboring communities – Member of larger area-wide associations

Category 5:Links to local government

• Nature of influence on local government– Membership of local government council – Contributes funds/in-kind to local government– others

• Nature of local government influence on CBO– Funding – others

Category 6:Relations with Other Levels of

Government• Legal and de facto recognition by

provincial/national government • Receives direct financial support from

provincial/national government• Intervention of provincial/national

government in disputes with local government

• others

Category 7:Relationships with External Actors

• Nature of external support– Funds, expertise,

• Sources of external support• Importance of support to achievement of goals

(Can project be sustained with support of external actor?)

• How support is organized:– Decision making in project– Accounting for project resources, etc.

Questions and Comments

• Why groups with “dense ties” less likely to engage in collective action across groups?

• How is social capital cultivated?• Readings seem to suggest there cannot

be purely altruistic behavior.• Case for CBOs and local governance

overstated in this era of globalization.