Publics, Politics and Participation

(Wang) #1

58 Philosophical Frames


the country and the city... is that between planning and organic growth.”
Jameson is referring here to the debates over the French Revolution in
which for the first time in history was asserted “the primacy of the human
will over social institutions and the power of human beings... to reshape
and fashion society according to a plan, an abstract idea or ideal.”^13
at distinction leads to the question about the role of merchant Th
cities, rentier cities, administrative cities and the like in the production of
a public sphere. The question can be addressed from another angle: are all
public spaces necessarily public spheres and necessarily contributive to the
democratic process?^14
nsofar as a public sphere is an area of inclusion, it is simultaneously I
an area of exclusion. In societies in which tribes, regions, religious sects,
and ethnic groups are organized as political institutions and representa-
tive bodies, can we safely assume that a public space restricted to part of
a community—or hypothetically to the whole community—constitutes a
component of the public sphere and is conducive to democratization? Is
the constitution of an urban space for Hizbullah in the southern suburb
of Beirut a closed space (because restricted to one sect to the exclusion of
other sects) or is it a public sphere because it brings together members of
otherwise closed and exclusive families, clans, regions, and others?
o family associations, politicized religious sects and organized eth-D
nic groups belong to civil society or are they its opposite? In the civil soci-
ety discourse in Lebanon the question was circumscribed by the creation
of two “societies,” as it were: first, communal society [al-mujtama‘ al-ahlῑ]
to cover the above-mentioned, and second, civil society [al-mujtama‘
al-madanῑ] which contains the voluntary associations such as trade
unions, political parties, NGOs and the like. The same problem could be
applied to Jordan, the Gulf states, Yemen, etc. But that distinction remains
incomplete as it requires further research and definition concerning the
influence of the former on the latter (in the form of traditional loyalty or
voluntary associations) and the degree of relative independence of civil
society proper vis-à-vis the state. Research in Egypt has shown that the
majority of existing NGOs were either created by the state or dependent
on it. In short, the countryside is capable of unleashing social forces that
contribute to democratiza tion insofar as the city may contain social forces
that constitute obstacles to it.

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