Exploring Civil Society: Political and cultural contexts

THIS BOOK CONSIDERS the way the concept of civil society is being translated into different political and cultural contexts, and what the impact is of using this concept in political development in many different nations and regions. In particular, it contrasts an understanding of civil society as service provider with civil society as a key part of political contestation and of opposition to authoritarianism and unaccountable governments. After an introductory section, the book’s chapters are organized into seven sections:
- Setting out the argument – includes chapters on the historical development of the concept of civil society and the role of the church.
- Civil society in Latin America and Eastern Europe – where developments in the 1980s helped revive the concept of civil society.
- Rediscovering civil society in Western Europe and the USA.
- Asia: is civil society rooted or imported? – includes chapters on Bangladesh, China and two Central Asian republics.
- Africa: civil society as neo-colonialism? – includes chapters on Nigeria, South Africa and West Africa.
- The Middle East: civil society as emancipation? – includes chapters on Iran, Turkey and Palestine.
- The case for global civil society
Three sets of interrelated issues emerge from these chapters:
- The exploration of the politics of civil society across different contexts in the light of the shifting interrelationships and blurred boundaries between civil society and the state.
- The challenge of examining the relationships that link civil societies with wider political and institutional contexts, and the dynamics of power embedded in these.
- The importance of place and local contexts – as many of the chapters discuss how much civil -society’s form is influenced by local setting.
One of the book’s main sub-themes is on whether the concept of civil society is an imposition of western ideas (including the promotion of neo-liberal policies) or whether it reflects important and progressive trends in the radicalization of democracy and the redistribution of political power. Another key theme is whether the western origin of the concept of civil society allows for local forms that are different from the secular and formally organized organizations that constitute much of civil society in the West. Many chapters demonstrate that it is different; in many different nations and contexts, it responds to new threats from dominant institutions – many of which are international.