ISBN: 970­27­0713­4

La Globalización Se Descentraliza:
Libre Mercado, Fundaciones, Sociedad Cívica y Gobierno Civil
en las Regiones del Mundo
by

Olga Magdalena Lazín

Foreword
(Guadalajara, February 2008)

Translated from Spanish by Nancy Kaiser (UCLA)

Acknowledgements

Decentralization of globalization has everything to do with the definition of

“Civic Attitude”.1 This book is a comparative analysis on free trade agreements in the
Americas, as well as civic attitudes around the world (Esp. Romania, Mexico, Hungary,
other Latin American countries, and the U.S.) If there is sufficient civic attitude, and civic
pressure, closed systems will open in a blink of an eye.
Although a tradition exists, from a Scottish illustration in the seventeenth century,
separating the concepts “civic” and “civil”, it is necessary to point out the confusion of
using both terms interchangeably, but moreover to refer to “civil society” and how it
counteracts government abuses of power.

1
I capitalize the term “Civil Attitude” to differentiate from the term “civil society”, a criteria which is
utilized throughout this work.
 An important part of this book is to clarify the mentioned confusion, especially in
the preface, and I should mention that the majority of analysts refer to “civil society”
when in reality they mean Civic Attitude.
For instance, Ernest Gellner (1991), Adam Seligman (1995) y Carlos Monsiváis
(2005, cited in Table 1 of the preface), as well as philanthropists like George Soros
(Building open societies, Soros Foundation Network 2005 report, 2006), speak of civil
societies. In a certain sense, Soros is correct because a large part of his mission is helping
construct responsible, efficient and honest civil governments. On the other hand, Soros
should gain better understanding that his role is not to represent the civil government,
rather, to be an agent of Civic Attitude.

[15]

In this book, I distinguish between civil society as government and Civic Society,
which represents the non-governmental sector and the actions governments cannot
perform not only due to their lack of imagination, but also due to the bureaucratic
disinterest.
To differentiate between the civic and civil, I should recognize the thinkers of the
Scottish Illustration (that flourished between 1740 and 1800) created and important body
of thought that established the idea of a market economy and civil government with
moral and civic values to prevent corrupt tyrants, rulers and “public servicemen” from
abusing their power.
Lindley Murray popularized the idea that individual power can prevail over
tyrannical power. Although Murray lived in the United States, he captured the term
“civic” from the Scottish Illustration in his book The English Reader (published in 1799),
and was the second most popular English speaking author in the world between 1800 and
1849. During that time, 11 million copies of his work were sold in the United States
alone, and 3 million were sold in other countries. He focused on highlighting personal
integrity and passionately defended the common good.2
Meanwhile, a French tradition, initiated by Montesquieu y De Tocqueville,
exposed the idea that Civic Attitude is necessary to help civil government and insisted
that it functions for the common good. These thinkers emphasized the civic role of
autonomous associations among civil societies, not political ones, with which they started
their own actions in favor of the people in general. The travels of Alexis de Tocqueville
brought him to the conclusion that the United States, a country that barely started its
independent existence
[16]

was the epitome of Civic Attitude, already moving forward and taking advantage of the
English civil legislative tradition, that which contributed to the reading population
newspapers to understanding its surroundings.

2
Véase Charles Monaghan, “Lindley Murray and the [Scottish] Enlightenment”,
http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/paradigm/monoghan2.html, 1996.
 The idea of establishing its own Civic Attitude flourished in England and
Germany as well, in the first country to limit the power of the monarchy which was still
in power, in the second country to stimulate a new intellectual tradition.3
From the Scottish illustration, it is important to also note that Adam Smith, author
of La riqueza de las naciones (1776), which was considered the foundation of the free
trade among nations for the benefit of them all, was written before his Teoria de los
sentimientos morales (1759). In this theory Smith suggested that “social capital” should
be based in the network consisting of school, family, community, religion and volunteer
associations; or Civic Attitude, which gives life to people and the market amongst
villages, cities, regions and nations. Smith clarified that interests and the market are not
self sufficient for creating a society that benefits all, without the necessity of civil culture
to form strong relations between these various types of entities. Social capital
complements capital economy and viceversa.4
More recently, Civic Attitude has been identified as Civic Culture.
Furthermore, I am tackling the reform of the State in Romania, the constitutional reforms,
with regards to transparency, elections and penal justice as well as the trends in
democratization of the Romanian and Mexican states.

3
Véase Fania Oz-Salzberger (1995).
4
Véase Peter J. Dougherty (2002) Who’s afraid of Adam Smith: How the market got its soul!, New York:
Wiley, cited by Christopher Farrell en
www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2002/nf20021115_2141.htm