The Power of a Well-Organized Civil Society

The Power of a Well-Organized Civil Society

A fundamental support for the political life and the prosperity of a country comes from the existence of a well-organized civil society formed by different private sectors of the community. The characteristic of being private in no way means that it does not have public, political, significance, because these entities not only work in line with the groups that conform them, but they are also concerned with other affairs, among them those of the locality where they live and those of the nation in general.
A well-organized civil society, with a sense of civic responsibility beyond the particular interests of each group, each profession or trade, each business or industrial activity, to mention just a few, is a valuable resource in any national emergency. Likewise, if there is no national emergency, it is always useful for the permanent development of a country. It is not a development with limits. It is limitless because progress flourishes under the protection of that civil society.
Government and political parties normally have to follow closely the activities of the civil society because they know that at any given time it can express its support or its accusation, depending on the case, in line with the conduct of the government or of the alluded parties. This in itself does not mean that a civil society has a permanent political belligerence, because the members of that society can very well belong to the parties and also be identified, when this be justified, with the government. However, the concept of what the civil power of that society represents should always prevail, or should prevail. That power, when it is set into motion to face a national emergency, a political crisis, is invaluable.
The chambers of commerce, professional organizations, entities that group sectors of the country by activities, should work efficiently in line with their basic goals, and they should also be ready to defend the national interests when circumstances so demand. Under certain situations, the civil society has equal or more power than the political society.

DIARIO LAS AMERICAS