v Acknowledgements The author would like to thank participants in <strong>the</strong> Industrial Relations Research Seminar at MIT, where a prior version of <strong>the</strong> paper was presented (Cambridge, Mass., May 15, 2001) for <strong>the</strong>ir comments as well as Archon Fung, Richard Locke, <strong>and</strong> Jean-Michel Servais for helpful feedback. The author would also like to thank Konstantinos Papadakis for excellent research assistance <strong>and</strong> Yoshika Hirata for collecting <strong>the</strong> data reported in <strong>the</strong> Appendixes.
1. Introduction This ra<strong>the</strong>r abstract paper is motivated by an eminently practical concern. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has recently restructured itself to emphasize <strong>the</strong> notion of “decent work.” “<strong>Decent</strong> work,” as argued by <strong>the</strong> ILO’s Director General in his report to <strong>the</strong> 1999 International Labour Conference, “means productive work in which rights are protected, which generates an adequate income, with adequate social protection. It also means sufficient work, in <strong>the</strong> sense that all should have full access to income-earning opportunities.” (ILO, 1999: 13) <strong>Decent</strong> work initiatives are intended to encompass four interrelated policy areas: <strong>the</strong> promotion of fundamental principles <strong>and</strong> rights at work (which includes freedom of association <strong>and</strong> collective bargaining, elimination of forced labour, abolition of child labour, <strong>and</strong> elimination of discrimination), <strong>the</strong> creation of employment <strong>and</strong> income opportunities, <strong>the</strong> provision of social protection, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> streng<strong>the</strong>ning of social dialogue. While expressing a renewed intent to continue working on very traditional issues for <strong>the</strong> organization, e.g. how to reconcile <strong>the</strong> workers’ protection <strong>and</strong> security with economic performance, <strong>the</strong> new ILO mission also marks some clear discontinuities with <strong>the</strong> past. For example, <strong>the</strong> focus is now on work <strong>and</strong> not simply labour. Unlike <strong>the</strong> latter, work encompasses all kinds of productive activities but does not necessarily involve <strong>the</strong> presence of an employment contract. 1 Part of this strategic reorientation is also <strong>the</strong> exploration of new avenues for policy design <strong>and</strong> implementation. In particular, following <strong>the</strong> example of o<strong>the</strong>r international organizations like <strong>the</strong> World Bank, <strong>the</strong> OECD, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> European Union, <strong>the</strong> ILO now asks itself <strong>the</strong> question of what so-called “civil society” could do for decent work policies. By incorporating representatives of employer <strong>and</strong> worker organizations as well as governments in its governance structure, <strong>the</strong> ILO already involves important parts of civil society within its own policy-making process <strong>and</strong> encourages member countries to do likewise. The virtues of participatory as opposed to top-down decision-making, recently discovered by o<strong>the</strong>r international organizations (see, for example, Bernard et al., 1998; Fiszbein <strong>and</strong> Lowden, 1999; EESC, 1999), are already an integral part of <strong>the</strong> organization’s culture. The issue of civil society involvement assumes, <strong>the</strong>refore, a specific meaning in <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> ILO. It implies asking whe<strong>the</strong>r organizations o<strong>the</strong>r than trade unions <strong>and</strong> employer associations can make a positive contribution to <strong>the</strong> design <strong>and</strong> implementation of decent work policies <strong>and</strong> if so, exactly what kind of organizations should be involved, in what economic <strong>and</strong> institutional contexts, <strong>and</strong> for what type of policies. Based on an extensive review of <strong>the</strong> literatures on civil society, <strong>NGOs</strong>, <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r interrelated constructs (like, for example, social capital), this paper seeks to provide some initial <strong>and</strong> preliminary answers to <strong>the</strong>se questions. 2 The definition of civil society is extremely vague. It designates a series of organizations intermediate between state <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> market, with<strong>out</strong> specifying exactly what kind of organization constitute civil, as opposed to “uncivil” society. Different authors have <strong>the</strong>ir own idealtype in mind when <strong>the</strong>y talk ab<strong>out</strong> civil society, e.g. choral societies 1 The 1999 report stated that “because of its origins, <strong>the</strong> ILO has paid most attention to <strong>the</strong> needs of wage workers - <strong>the</strong> majority of <strong>the</strong>m men - in formal enterprises. But this is only part of its m<strong>and</strong>ate, <strong>and</strong> only part of <strong>the</strong> world of work. Almost everyone works, but not everyone is employed … The ILO must be concerned with workers beyond <strong>the</strong> formal labour market - with unregulated wage workers, <strong>the</strong> self-employed, <strong>and</strong> homeworkers.” (ILO, 1999: 3) 2 The “sample” of secondary sources analysed in this paper was initially generated through a keyword-based search on one of <strong>the</strong> leading on-line information databases. (The keywords used for this search were: “civil society,” “social capital,” <strong>and</strong> “<strong>NGOs</strong>.”). Many o<strong>the</strong>r sources were added later through a sort of “snowball” method, i.e. by reading <strong>the</strong> articles <strong>and</strong> singling <strong>out</strong> those entries in <strong>the</strong> reference lists that appeared most interesting <strong>and</strong> promising. Obviously, not all articles that have been written on civil society or <strong>NGOs</strong> have been included in this review. This, albeit not strictly impossible, would have been very difficult since <strong>the</strong> literature is immense. None<strong>the</strong>less, I believe that <strong>the</strong> most important pieces of scholarship have been covered.
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