[WSIS CS-Plenary] civil society legitimacy, accountability and transparency

[Tracey Naughton]

Internal governance: Responding to the challenge of civil society 
legitimacy, accountability and transparency
By  Kumi Naidoo , CIVICUS Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer
Improving internal governance is an important issue for all of civil 
society, particularly at a moment when civil society is under threat 
from certain quarters which argue that while governments derive their 
mandate through elections to make and implement policies, civil society 
organisations (CSOs) are ‘self-appointed do-gooders’ who have no 
mandate to represent the voices of marginalised citizens. What this 
critique ignores is the deepening democratic deficit in most countries 
around the world, even where elections are held, and even in 
long-standing democratic countries. Some features of this democratic 
deficit include: (1) fewer citizens feeling motivated to vote in 
elections; (2) the inaccessibility of political office, for example in 
the United States, where it has become prohibitively expensive to run 
for national political office, thus ruling out many good candidates; 
(3) the continuing gender imbalance in parliamentary and government 
institutions; (4) the skewed media environment in several countries 
that do not allow equitable access to the media; (5) the lack of 
internal democracy in political parties; and, (6) the high return rate 
of incumbent candidates, suggesting that those that hold political 
office are able to exploit their position to seek re-election. To read 
more, see www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral6.htm


Tracey Naughton
NYAKA
Communication for Development Consultant
201 Somerset hall
239 Oxford Road
Illovo     2196
South Africa

landline & fax:	+27 (0) 11 880 5030
cell / mobile:	+27 (0) 82 821 1771
email:		tracey at traceynaughton.com
skype:		tracey_naughton
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