Civil Society and the Liberal Project in Ghana and Sierra Leone

This article examines the policies and practices of Western states and development agencies in their support of civil society in two cases: Ghana and Sierra Leone. While rather different, these cases illustrate well the typical forms of interventions that target civil society. The article argues that donor discourse about the role of civil society in the construction of good governance replicates the arguments typically found in liberal theory, and that the donor practice that follows from this should be seen as a specifically liberal project of social transformation.