of governments to undertake a variety of welfare functions.” (LIPSCHUTZ: 1992, p.
399.)
Identification with the nation state as the primary social grouping has begun to
wither partly in response. At the same time, identity based on consumption and the
market is insufficient for establishing new identities. Therefore, there has been a rise
in new forms of collective identities, new nationalisms in some places, but also the
creation of cosmopolitan identities and a global consciousness. (LIPSCHUTZ: 1992, p.
399.)
Recognition of the democratic deficit on the level of global governance raises
the question whether and how civil society can contribute to reducing it, dynamizing
the process of global democratization. More precisely, what role can civil society
play in a reconfigured democracy for global governance?
6.2. Defining, Refining and Redefining Global Civil Society
Even if the history of transnational or international organizations goes back to
the 19th century, global civil society is a relatively new phenomenon. It became part
of the official vocabulary in the mid-1990s when international funding institutions
started to employ it in their program descriptions. This is also when we can observe
the first theoretical and empirical analyses that accumulated around the turn of the
century.
The need for global civil society stems from democratic deficits at the global
level but global civil society remains vague and deficient without the articulation
and application of global rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights goes some way to defining a potential global
citizenship, but we are still a long way from institutionalizing form(s) of citizenship
rights at the global level. It is precisely the articulation of these sets of rights and
responsibilities related to citizenship that guarantee a defence against the over-
indulgent markets of turbo-capitalism. RALF DAHRENDORF characterizes citizenship
as the epitome of freedom, and civil society as the medium through which this
freedom is projected, boosted and dispersed. It thus constitutes the home of the
Citizen:
... citizenship and civil society go one important step further than
elections and markets. They are goals to strive for rather than dangers to
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