Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka, Elzbieta
(2016)
‘State Bureaucrats’ and
‘Those NGO People’:
Promoting the idea of
civil society, hindering
the state.
Critique of Anthropology, 36 (4).
pp. 341-362.
ISSN 0308-275X
Abstract
One of the characteristics of Polish foreign aid is its focus on the ‘transition experience’
and civil society. This specific celebration of the ‘Polish success story’ contrasts sharply
with public debates that frequently criticise the weaknesses of Polish civil society and
the difficulties in state – non-state relations. The Polish Aid apparatus itself is not
immune to these problems, often exhibiting antagonistic relations between NGOs
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By looking at the relations linking these stakeholders
this text aims to analyse relations between the ‘state’ and ‘civil society’ in Poland. As the
text demonstrates, complicated contemporary relations between NGOs and the State
are first the outcome of the country’s troubled history of civil society, and an inheritance
of the Solidarity movement when the concept of civil society was built on the idea
of opposition to the state. Second, the anti-state attitude characterising contemporary
organisations was also fostered by foreign institutions, which supported the Solidarity
movement in its efforts to overturn the socialist regime in Poland, and later in the
1990s, became the strongest proponents of civil society and NGOs. Finally, these preexisting
historical conditions for the strong polarisation of NGOs and state institutions
are now additionally reinforced by the ‘professionalization’ and ‘institutionalisation’ of
NGOs. However, the uncritical promotion of ‘Western standards’ exhibited in the
ideals of transparency and audit culture, rather than generating positive change only
antagonises NGOs and state institutions. The ultimate effect of this process is that
NGOs become more and more obsessed with bureaucratic modes of operating, and
start to resemble state institutions. Effectively, NGOs risk losing their identity which is
so strongly built on the non-governmental aspect of their work. Effectively, the perpetuation
of the state/non-State opposition becomes a strategy which allows this separate
identity to be maintained and NGOs status to remain unchallenged.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Civil society; NGO; bureaucracy; state; administration; democracy; Poland; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology |
| Item ID: |
11169 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X16654553 |
| Depositing User: |
IR Theres
|
| Date Deposited: |
09 Oct 2019 10:41 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Critique of Anthropology |
| Publisher: |
SAGE Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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