Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

At a conference held at the American Enterprise Institute, three guests spoke about the importance of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the world's expanding globalization. Jonathan P. Doh is an Assistant Professor of Management and Operations at the Villanova School of Business. He began the discussion with a broad definition of non-governmental organizations. He believes that their definition is everything that is not government or business. In this way people create their own groups at local and community levels to create roles in participatory democracy. Doh said that this form of civil society has been around for centuries and that even Tocqueville referred to the tendency of Americans to constantly associate with one another more than 150 years ago. Doh said that he hopes for global trade associations to be expanded under the Obama administration, and that civil society belongs in international trade. He said that NGOs had advantages that governments do not in transnational interactions. Doh said, "NGOs can step in and do things that governments aren't doing."

The discussion then moved to Don Eberly, a man who has worked with many members of Congress, two administrations, and the State Department during times such as the South Asian tsunami. Eberly said that civil society is expanding and moving the world into a new era where non-state actors "create or destruct" communities and states. Non-state actors, even those like al-Qaida, Eberly said, have more power and influence in their countries than ever before. Due to developing communications technologies, globalization will continue to expand with a greater blend of cultures, styles, and cuisines. Eberly sees this as a positive development, and he said that corporate philanthropy is expanding as well because of this. During the South Asian tsunami, Eberly said he saw "compassion as America's most consequential export." Due to the accessibility of the internet, hundreds of millions of dollars are donated to NGOs every year, especially during humanitarian crises. Larger NGOs can hire and access "expert personnel to put the pieces of the society and economy back together, as well as help with humanitarian aid," he said. Thanks to communications technology, the world can be previewed to the struggles of citizens living under closed governments because they can put videos and blogs on the internet and gain international recognition. Eberly ended with, "civil society movements are prying open closed governments."

Ian Maitland is a Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Business. He addressed the "new global corporate social responsibility (CSR)". He said that NGOs were the groups pushing for CSR in the first place in hopes of reinvigorating the welfare state, or relevant parts of it. Maitland said that all claims of globalization as "unchecked global capitalism" are unsupported by the evidence. He believes that national sovereignty is not at risk of NGOs and that the myth of a regulatory vacuum really is just a myth. Corporations and transnationals are still subject to home and host countries regulations. NGOs will help create "dynamic economies that provide jobs that will raise the standards of living." In this way, Maitland believes that "the cure for globalization is more globalization."