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One of the major definitions of social capital which came to the limelight early is the collective organizational and institutional ties in a given society that enhances values of tolerance, cooperation and the support of the societal set of values.
The civil societies are according to that definition has a leading role in developing the social capital on collective rather than individualistic basis. The social capital thus depends on the size of the social network, the organizational structures of civil societies, parties, and voluntary groups that support the individual to achieve his and the society's goals.
At the heart of the civil society lies the internationally recognized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which proved to be the peoples' voice; capable of building up social networks based on mutual trust and free communication within the framework of commitment to peoples' welfare which make them a valuable source of social capital.
The first civil society was established in Egypt in 1821or the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The Egyptian-Greek association in Alexandria was thus the first civil society that looks after the welfare of the Greek community in Alex. Thirty years later, a series of NGOs were established and played a major role in promoting the Egyptian culture, like Maser Institute for Historical Studies, Al Ma'ref (Knowledge) Association, the Geography Association, The Islamic-Coptic Charity Association ...etc.
However, the last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed the establishment of the vast majority of major civil societies in Egypt especially those calling for women emancipation and social welfare. But, a qualitative development took place at the first half of the twentieth century when the civil societies were the mouthpiece of political groups ranging from the communist, Islamists to liberals and Arab nationalists.
The civil societies at the time enjoyed the legal protection of the civil law and managed to create a strong bond with the social movements especially women association leading all the way up to the formation of the Women Federation in 1923.
However, by 1952 revolution, the one party rule put an end to the civil society's role and managed to bring under its umbrella all the civil societies which had to work within the framework of the party, till the advent of the seventies when the open door policy gave room to the establishment of 4000 new civil association. However, the nineties witnessed a remarkable increase of registered civil societies in Egypt to reach 26000.
There are four generations of the civil societies in Egypt or rather four types. The first are the charity organizations that offers medical and health assistance to the needy, the second are the service societies that targets the educational and health services unavailable to the poor, while the third are the developmental societies that work to alleviate the living standards by developing the skills of its community. The most recent are the advocacy organizations are actively involved in raising the people knowledge of their rights like the human rights. That type of NGOs which reached in 2009 about 65 organizations in Egypt, though do not offer the stereo-types traditional services, yet work to brig about 'collective benefits' by defending peoples' human rights thus bringing about some sort of social and political change .
Such advocacy groups came to be known on the regional Arab level in 1983 when the Arab Organization for Human Rights was established, following a meeting held by a group of distinguished Arab intellectuals in Cyprus. Despite of the fact that no Arab state accepted to host the former organization, its Egyptian counterpart was established only three years later. However, the many human rights and legal advocacy organizations that were later established in Egypt came under the law of non-profit companies' law and not the social welfare law which make it pretty difficult to get an approval.
Establishing their legal groups under the non-profit company law has given members of the advocacy groups a free room to act on the political and the social sphere. Most of those involved in the advocacy groups belong mainly to the leftists, Nasserites and Arab nationalists. However, there are many advocacy groups that target certain social category like prisoners of opinion, people of special needs, children rights .etc.
The increasing number of NGOs in Egypt has added to the regime's credibility whereby the social capital has been sharing the responsibility with the government in developing the social capital. The advocacy groups could also be the primary levels where citizens develop better understanding of political and democratic culture based on cooperation, the need to reach compromises through different negotiating means.
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* Expert at the National Centre for Social and Criminal Studies, Egypt
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