Political reform
What role has civil society to play in political reform and social transformation today?
In this essay I focus on the nature of the state-civil society relationship in Ireland and I offer outlooks on how it may possibly change in the future to involve more of an input from civil society. I begin the essay by discussing the relationship between the state and civil society today. I then go on to discuss my thoughts on the constitutional convention in Ireland. After this I go on to talk about some of the consequences of the type of relationship between the State and civil society in Ireland today. The following section talks about the corruption in Irish politics and what is being done to stop it. And I finish the essay with my recommendations on what needs to change.
I believe that the state-civil society relationship can be described through four different observations of how the two have interacted over the past two decades. The first observation is the ‘controlling relationship observation’. Brian Harvey draws attention to the ever changing relationship between the state and civil society over the past couple of decades, he points out the many inconsistencies, changes of plans and adjustments that have branded the relationship. Harvey talks about the first formal document that appeared in 2000 which outlined how civil society organisations were to have independence, freedom of choice and be able to speak out on issues affecting them. However it soon became evident that indeed the opposite was happening. The state was ever increasing its funding to the services industry. Mary Murphy adds that the state has retained and possibly even increased its power over civil society and is reorganising local civil governments for its own interests, she believes that the Irish state is trying to control civil society and that their strategy seems to be working.
The ‘second observation’ is the increasing amount of disciplinary funding regimes. When it comes to funding the
In this essay I focus on the nature of the state-civil society relationship in Ireland and I offer outlooks on how it may possibly change in the future to involve more of an input from civil society. I begin the essay by discussing the relationship between the state and civil society today. I then go on to discuss my thoughts on the constitutional convention in Ireland. After this I go on to talk about some of the consequences of the type of relationship between the State and civil society in Ireland today. The following section talks about the corruption in Irish politics and what is being done to stop it. And I finish the essay with my recommendations on what needs to change.
I believe that the state-civil society relationship can be described through four different observations of how the two have interacted over the past two decades. The first observation is the ‘controlling relationship observation’. Brian Harvey draws attention to the ever changing relationship between the state and civil society over the past couple of decades, he points out the many inconsistencies, changes of plans and adjustments that have branded the relationship. Harvey talks about the first formal document that appeared in 2000 which outlined how civil society organisations were to have independence, freedom of choice and be able to speak out on issues affecting them. However it soon became evident that indeed the opposite was happening. The state was ever increasing its funding to the services industry. Mary Murphy adds that the state has retained and possibly even increased its power over civil society and is reorganising local civil governments for its own interests, she believes that the Irish state is trying to control civil society and that their strategy seems to be working.
The ‘second observation’ is the increasing amount of disciplinary funding regimes. When it comes to funding the
Bibliography: Geoghean Martin and Fred.Powell (2007): Active Citizenship, Civil Society and Enabling State. Harvey, Brian (2008): Community sector funding. Shriver, W. (2007): Power and choice: An introduction to political science.