The Role of Civil Society in Foreign Policy, a Study in the Liberal Democracy-Practical Policies

All liberal democracies, based by definition on the notion of pluralism, leave a large place for interaction with civil society in domestic politics. This space shrinks considerably when it comes to questions of foreign policy. Foreign policy is no longer the preserve of departments of foreign affairs and national defense, of security advisers and heads of government; it also brings in ministries dealing with industry, commerce, immigration, fisheries, and agriculture, to name only some of the more obvious suspects. Policy has thus become much more fragmented and offers much greater opportunities for the various forces of civil society to intervene and to attempt to exercise their influence. This study will examine the conditions that favor civil society access to the foreign policy-making process, since it is only there that extensive societal involvement in foreign policy has had any opportunity to develop in any meaningful way. Clearly this does not mean that non-governmental actors did not play any role in the political process before then. It is just a way of highlighting the growing involvement of these actors in some of the big issues of inter-state relations, such as trade, development and sovereignty. At the same time, changes in the nature of foreign policy concerns which have occurred in the last thirty years, in particular the blurring of distinctions between so-called high and low politics, have not only widened the scope of foreign policy but have also increased the number of participants in decision making. It will be argued that access, and hence the potential for influence, on the part of the forces of civil society to the foreign policy process is contingent on three factors: (1) the nature and source of the demands being made on the decision makers; (2) the degree of commitment of decision makers to particular policies; (3) the dynamics of the policy-making process itself. However, before looking at each of these elements in turn, there must be some understanding of two major concepts, that of civil society and of foreign policy, as they are being used here.