Participants differed, however, over how this outreach should be done, and in particular, over how civil society should relate to political parties and the electoral process. Civil society organizations promote more effective citizenship by offering citizens avenues of participation between and beyond elections, but parties may see some forms of this participation as threatening. Many participants drew encouragement from the diversity of methods that are being used to establish positive relations between parties and civil society organizations. The discussion explored many elements of the difficult relationship between parties and civil society. One participant with wide experience in party development around the world observed, I have yet to find a democratic society that does not have a healthy tension between political parties and civil society.
Politicians often see civil society as wanting the benefits of political influence with no pain.
Civil society sees parties as wanting to monopolize the political terrain. Yet civil society and political parties do share the common goal of making democracy work, and in this sense they can and should be complementary. An additional difficulty is that civil society is treated differently by government and opposition parties. Opposition parties are more receptive to the critical posture that civil society often brings to political discussions. Governing parties are more wary, and know that they must deliver on the demands of civil society organizations if they engage them at all.