Barry Knight, Hope Chigudu and Rajesh Tandon wrote this book after
the protest against world leaders at Seattle
in 1999, where young and angry campaigners got the IMF and mighty figures in
mighty corporations squirming in their seats as they had to answer ordinary
people’s questions in front of world’s TV cameras. On the back drop of recent
harsh
criticism against market driven globalisation the book’s tone seems
cautious and mellow. The book is a result of a study sponsored by the
Commonwealth Foundation and CIV-ICUS in participatory research, the methods of
which are clearly explained. The argument emerges from a wide spread perception
of a global collapse of confidence in politics and the state as evidenced from
falling turnout at elections, the degradation of legitimate political
institutions, increasing inequalities between the rich and the poor and an
alienation of billions of ordinary people noticed through apathetic withdrawal
or in violence and disorder. The authors feel that focussing only on NGOs as
agents of the revival space ignores the most important feature of civil society
viz its citizens. The book shows remarkable convergence of ordinary people’s
thinking around the world on what a good society does and involves. The
findings from the first world to third world countries amply confirm this. Thousands
of ordinary people want a decent life not only for themselves and their
families but for other people too. They are also clear despite their criticism
of failing, incompetent and corrupt
governments, that they want governments to
meet basic needs and to administer the processes of state fairly and lawfully.
It is noteworthy that they do not demand for great wealth or opulence. The ordinary
people are alert to their conditions, know the causes of many of their problems
and want to have better material and political life.