In “Ethnicity and Development in Africa: A Reappraisal” Robert Gates creates a picture of the development of civil society in Africa and its influence on economic stability and development. His insight into a small town in Zambia provides a useful rival alternative to traditional western civil society.
Whereas in western industrialized countries, civil society is much more focused on external connections, be it the Boy Scouts or Rotary Club, connections based on interactions within the community. This is in stark contrast to Gates example where there is a much stronger focus on family and its interaction in the community and society. Although it is different, it is not to say less successful on a micro level, and in fact elicits some of the same benefits. Traditional Civil society is good for incubating positive social relations and improvements in all facets of life. Likewise, in the African village, the connections are overall beneficial since an investment in the children is shown to yield positive returns for the family. This arrangement seems likely to continue as long as it is a wise investment, just as community groups in the West function as long as they continue to achieve their goals.
Similar to western civil society, there are ways of coercing behavior through various sanctions to maintain cohesion. In western society, there are things such as membership dues and fines for bad conduct that help to maintain the proper environment for functioning civil society just as in the African town, the social pressures exerted by the middle age generation help to keep the youth in line, for there is a price to pay for the valuable education they are receiving. In both cases, this social pressure helps maintain a successful system.
The important thing to realize is that although they are different, both systems seem to fit the situation and achieve the goal of strong social bonds and civil society.
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While I do not contest your point that both Western and African traditional definitions of Civil Society accomplish similar goals, the main difference is that many Western societies have both micro and macro scales. In the Tocquevillian sense, social mores -- civil society -- are intended to reinforce the ideals of the state, not just the ideals of the family. To borrow an example you used, that of the Boy Scouts, membership in the Boy Scouts is essentially indoctrination with American ideologies as well as some Christian beliefs. But it serves to activate subconscious ideas of what is morally justifiable and what is not in American society. As such, the decline in American bowling leagues, a former facet of American civil society, is alarming, not that the entire state will erode because one tangible area of civil society is in non-existence, but because it could be indicative of a larger endemic within the United States. An alternative that has been raised, however, is virtual civil society. This is still in its infancy, and whether it will come to fruition as an intangible, fruitful facet of civil society remains to be seen.
To return to Africa however, while there are tribal allegiances and familial ties only serves to undermine the central authority. The civil societies associated with those two ideas (family and tribe) are tangential when it comes to the overarching plan of the national government; as such it creates a dichotomy in power whereby allegiances are more closely linked to tribal ties than they are national ties because the state does not have a civil society that can one up or even attain parity with the tribal civil society. As an example, I would point to the new democratic government in Afghanistan whereby provincial offices are much more likely to have a photograph of the area's warlord than they are a photograph of the national president.
So, to conclude, I concede your point; however, I offer that it may be slowing, if not halting or reversing progress altogether. If these developing states wish to have a functional democracy, it would seem imperative for the state, the church, or the tribes to reach out to one another and work together to create an overarching national civil society.
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