Post-Democratic Regimes and the Businessification of the State and Civil Society: A Public Lecture by Kevin Hewison on 8 Nov

The UP Center for Integrative Studies (UPCIDS) Programs on Alternative Development, and Social and Political Change, together with the UP Department of Political Science will be holding a public lecture by Kevin Hewison on Post-Democratic Regimes and the Businessification of the State and Civil Society on 8 November 2017, 10:00 a.m. onwards at the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies, Lower Ground Floor, Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman. The discussion is free and open to the public, but seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
About the lecture
The struggle for civil society is one in which business dominates the state in post-democracies. The businessification of the state results in the state and business engaged in a two-prong effort to businessify the organizations of civil society. Businessification means that CSOs will tend to be supportive of – or at least non-challenging to – the state. For Petras (1999, 435) there has been a tendency for “apolitical” postures amongst NGOs, and observes that “their focus on self-help depoliticizes and demobilizes the poor.” Yet the post-democracy argument is not that civil society is lost or that NGOs have sold out. Rather, in politics, democracy is weakened by businessification. For the organizations of civil society, as bussinessification takes hold of them, there is a diminution of activism that contributes to the narrowing of political space, the rise of anti-politics and the domination of business elites.
About the speaker
Kevin Hewison is a Weldon E. Thornton Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies (Emeritus) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Asia. He has written extensively on the topics of globalization and democratization. He is currently exploring research in globalization and social change in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand; democratization; and labor issues.
If you are interested in attending the event, sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/JffRhCsN7yiEMPW12