Maintaining a Civic Nation: Social Cohesion in Timor-Leste

Abstract

Seemingly conventional interests in civil society in Timor Leste have been concerned more with the many agents of civil society, including non-government organisations and, to a lesser extent, community-based organisations. Political theory has underpinned this mainstream concept of civil society. Under this conception, civil society is seen as an organisational framework, designed to provide a political voice to citizens, lead to popular, direct democracy, and ensure the natural freedoms of citizens are not curtailed. However, this political theory conception is misguided in the context of peacebuilding. As this paper maintains, a civil society is more suitably understood, if set in a post-conflict environment, as the representation of a cohesive social environment. Bryant coined this the sociological approach to civil society, which he maintained is concerned with the "social relations and communications between citizens" (1995, 145). This sociological distinction has a great deal to offer to the literature on sustainable peacebuilding in Timor Leste, as we will see, because it promotes the importance of establishing a social culture that relies on interpersonal trust, civility and reciprocity. These relationship qualities are otherwise known in social theory, as indicators of social capital.