Global Change Essay

The concept of civil society was reinvented in the late 1980s in response to the rapid market development and the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the rapid development of global market due to higher international security. Market development gradually leads to the development of civil society for two reasons: Firstly, the middle class helps to fight more freedom from the government as they want to gain more and more control of themselves. This situation, allows spaces for civil society to develop. Some donors search for NGOs to implement their civic or economic related interests and visions. 1 Secondly, the retreat of the â€Å"welfare† states in western countries further triggers the emergence of civil society as people want to address the problem themselves instead of solely depending on the invisible hand of the free market. Hong Kong, which is recognized as a newly industrialized economy (NIE) has adopted the minimal-interventionist principle in economic development for a long Low tax rate and free market policies are the priorities of the Hong Kong government. Civil society is said to be very important in the implementation of democracy as civil society is a representation of diverse interests of the people. In the planning system of Hong Kong, though the government was willing to involve more public participation in the process with the increasing force of democratization between 1990 and 1997, the role of civil society in planning policy formulation and implementation was not yet clear. According to the experiences of some UK cities, partnership between civil society and the local governments can facilitate sustainable development. It is yet to know whether such kind of partnership is possible in Hong Kong or not. So the aim of this paper is to find out the challenges and opportunities of mobilizing partnership between the government and civil society. Aims of the study This paper aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in fostering partnership between civil society and the government in the planning system of Hong Kong. This paper is based on the central argument that civil society organizations (â€Å"CSOs†) should play significant role in the planning system to explore the challenges and opportunities. It is argued that CSOs are important for promoting more effective idea in the policy planning in terms of reflecting the needs of the locals as well as the moral values neglected by both market and the government. It is believed that the challenges and opportunities are not that straightforward to be understood as they should involve a lot of other factors. These factors are to be examined in order to provide a clearer picture for the analysis. Structure of the paper This study is composed of six sections:- Session I begins with an introduction. It states the purpose of this paper and the content structure. Section II is the theoretical framework established for understanding the theoretical meaning of civil society and the importance of partnership between the government and the CSOs. Section III is the background about development of citizenship in Hong Kong. It is found that the civil society in Hong Kong is becoming mature. Section IV discusses on the six major factors contributing to the challenges in the relationship between the government and the civil society. Section V seeks to study real-life cases to further strengthen the argument that CSOs should play significant role in the planning system. Section VI, the final section of this paper. It summarizes all the key issues discussed in this paper and highlights the importance of the role of CSOs in planning system.   Defining â€Å"Civil Society† The definitions and meaning of civil society in different mainstream theories are explored and outlined in Appendix 1. The interpretation of civil society by Aristotle is now widely recognized as autonomy, not under direct state control. It emphasized on the formation of government based on voluntary willingness of people and universal election in order to guarantee sovereignty of citizens (for Locke) and the freedom of civil society (for Rousseau). The existing political system in Hong Kong is different as the HKSAR government is not directly elected by the citizens. Hong Kong people can only elect some of the legislative councilors, who act as delegates to deal with legislative issues; and district councilors, who are serving as advisors of the government. The sovereignty is just partly in the hand of Hong Kong people. In fact, the situation of Hong Kong is closer to the idea of Hegel that civil society and family together form the state. Civil society is actually functioning as a partly autonomy body under the government of Hong Kong. However, civil society should perform a more active role in the system in order to balance the power of the state and the market for the benefit of the public. So Friedmanns’ definition of civil society will be applied to support the empowerment of civil society. Civil society, as an association of individual interests, should grow up to balance the power of the state. His definition also separates the concept of market from civil society, which is applicable in the situation of Hong Kong. Friedmann(1998) states that civil society must be seen as standing in â€Å"opposition† to the corporate economy. The relationship of civil society and the market should not be neglected when we understand the relationship of the government and the civil society. 2 To sum up, the combination of Friedmann’s and Hegel’s definition of civil society is applied in this paper. Civil society is defined as a sphere without direct state control, but is not totally separated from the state. The participation in civil society is based on voluntary willingness and it is actually an association of various individual interests. It is different from the concepts of corporate economy and family, but they are related to some extent. Civil society may not necessarily oppose to the corporate economy, but they may interplay to produce good results. Civil society should be empowered to balance the power of the government and market.