Page 106 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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RELATING AUTHORITY AND SOLIDARITY 77

feeling of belonging that nationhood con- plans to affect it replaced the conventional
ferred upon individuals. In this political- model with a new one that includes commu-
cultural framework, the national state came to nity and solidarity as elements amenable to
be perceived not only as the European histor- rationalizing initiatives, whether one calls
ical path, but also as the natural development them social capital, trust, associativeness, or
of modern society. People got used to think- other related notions. The idea that, like
ing of societies and nations as equivalents, authority and market mechanisms, societal
and of both as circumscribed by the territory resources can be rationally planned to attain
of nation-states. In that context, national goals, finds a parallel in the revival of civil
citizenship became the ideal type of modern society in public discourse.
collective identity. The successful nation- Rescued from the past, after a long period
state should be able to convert citizenship of oblivion, if not open deprecation
into the prime identifier of a collectivity or a (Alexander, 1998; Cohen and Arato, 1992;
‘society’ as nations became synonymous Keane, 1988a; b; Pérez-Diáz, 1993), nowa-
with societies. days civil society has come to stand for the
The impact of the nation-state as an ideol- bright side of the world, one of the virtuous
ogy was overwhelming in the Developing components of collective life. The return of
World. To begin with, the idea of a basic right ‘civil society’ to daily discourse reveals an
to self-determination that inspired decolo- interesting fact. While the expression
nization did not refer to communities of any assumed quite distinct overtones, depending
other nature, but to people as members of on the context, everywhere it conveys the
nation-states. Other clusters of solidarity idea of healthy social forces to curb excesses
were underestimated, if not openly equated of either authority or market influences (Van
with obstacles to progress. The hopes for Rooy, 1998). As Hall (1995: 2) observed,
economic growth, development and modern- civil society became ‘at one and the same
ization were interlaced with ideas that mixed time a social value and a set of social institu-
in variable combinations of authority and tions’. That it was meant to convey the notion
market resources. In the perspective of polit- of a reaction to political and/or economic
ical activists, reforms and revolutions consti- malaise in very different contexts is quite
tuted means to make possible efficient use of clear, if we observe that civil society became
market and/or authority. Among scholars and an epitome of democracy in former commu-
policy makers, we observe a similar outlook. nist countries as well as in former state-led
Looking at the classic development literature capitalist dictatorships in Latin America. In
of the 1950s and 1960s, a clear pattern both contexts, together with the concept of
emerges: prescriptions for growth were citizenship, civil society replaced old slogans
essentially plans for the efficient use of in the democratic discourse. While previ-
market and/or authority initiatives. Solidarity ously, even in some academic circles, the
did not constitute an instrumental resource in notion of citizenship was considered a
those plans, but rather the ‘natural’ stuff ‘bourgeois mystification’, in the post bi-polar
sociability is made of. era, it has become a redeeming idea, a cher-
The specialized literature did recognize ished value. One could say that now any pos-
that solidarity feelings might even be restric- itive image of social life stresses the role of
tive, pulling apart tribes, clans, ethnic or reli- active citizens to revitalize civil society so as
gious groups. Yet, in the authors’ accounts, to compensate for the shortcomings of both
such feelings were always there, as a sort of state and market.
residual ground binding people together At the same time that the call for an active
while often preventing them from taking society becomes increasingly strong, one
rationally planned decisions. It was only in also observes clear signs that the image and
recent decades that images of social life and role of both market and state actors experience