opinion There is a contradictory linkage between the two realities that will clash at the G-8 Summit currently being held in Genoa.

On one side are the eight governments, whose legitimacy derives from the representational democratic systems that brought them to power. On the other side are the so-called 'Seattle People' whose legitimacy lies in their denunciation of the politics of the latter and of the 'world government'.

Everyone knows the G-8 are the seven major industrial powers plus Russia. Very few, in contrast, know who make up the Seattle People, despite the massive publicity they received since their massive protest of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in late 1999.

The new players on the international scene, most of the Seattle group emerged from civil society. Academics, activists, politicians, local or grass roots leaders, and members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), they join intellectual rigour with concrete action in their own societies and on the world stage.

It should be remembered that civil society is already into its second generation. The first arose in the 1960s and organised innumerable groups dedicated to co-operation with underdeveloped countries, to human rights, the environment, improving the role of women, and protection of the weakest, like women and children. Amnesty International and Greenpeace are two examples of first generation NGOs.

Sea of passions

In the 1970s and more so in the 80s, the NGOs became the dominant players in matters regarding North-South relations and development issues. Development ministries of advanced countries came to the conclusion that the NGOs are more efficient, less expensive, and less corrupt than private companies, and in cases, than their own governments. In 1990, 27 percent of total private and public development assistance passed through NGOs.

The consecration of the first generation of civil society came in the 1990s when the first United Nations global conferences on global issues were held. The first was the environment summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Almost 20,000 NGOs attended, releasing a sea of passions and profound commitments that shook up the traditional mechanisms of diplomatic consensus.

This dynamic was repeated at the world conferences on Population and Development in Cairo in 1993, and on Human Rights in Vienna in 1994, at the Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1995, and shortly after that at the Conference on the Woman in Beijing.

Thanks to the pressure generated by the NGOs, these conferences were more successful in reaching the goals that they had set out than could be reasonably expected.

The second generation of civil society emerged as a consequence of reflections on and criticism of globalisation. Its legitimacy derives not from the United Nations but the resonating protests in Seattle and those that followed in 2000 and this year.

While this second generation recognises the importance of development issues, they are not its top priority. Instead, it holds that the primary and most urgent problem is globalisation.

One part of the movement is anti-capitalist, and holds that globalisation is the last and definitive engine of capitalism in the world.

Less legitimate

The majority of the Seattle People, however, are not intransigently opposed to globalisation but see it as an historic phenomenon that should not be demonised. They do call for the imposition of ethical and social regulations on globalisation to prevent it from causing major damage and insure that it benefits all humanity and not just a few winners.

It should be noted that today young people tend to join civil society organisations at the same time as they separate themselves from politics. For them political parties are the gears of power and not instruments of participation and expression.

It is clear that if generous and idealist youth remain at the edge of politics, they will become increasingly less inclusive, more professional, and less legitimate. And since civil society can never take the place of the representational system in which political parties play a central role, this divergence presents a new and grave problem for democracy.

At the same time, civil society faces the difficult challenge of inserting itself into the constructive process of finding a way to govern globalisation, just as the first generation became a recognised participant in the UN system. The problem is that the second generation lacks operative strategies, being dedicated to denunciation but very little to construction.

If the Seattle People end up being considered just a protest movement and problem of public order, if its fight against unregulated globalisation is identified only with its denunciation of the IMF and the World Bank, and if it fails to engage in the political fight within the institutions to advance its own ideas, then responsibility for the democratic deficit will lie with the two groups that will face off in late July: the heads of state of the eight most important countries of the world, and their accusers, the multitudes of young people who in Genoa and the rest of the planet rail against a society that they want to make more just.

ROBERTO SAVIO presided over the plenary sessions on 'The Future of the Nation State' and on 'The Communications Media' at the World Social Forum. He is the founder and president emeritus of the Inter-Press Service (IPS) for which this article was first written.