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Aron, L.: The long struggle for freedom. - S. 62-74

The text of a lecture delivered on 27 June 1990 at Humboldt U, East Berlin, Germany, examines the concepts of "civil society" & "state" in light of contemporary developments in Eastern Europe. Drawing on insights from Max Weber, it is shown that the primary formal characteristic of the state is its possession of an administrative & legal order subject to change by legislation. The way in which the state derives authority & legitimation from its bureaucratic/administrative apparatus is discussed to show that the communist one-party system failed largely because it lacked the legitimation & authority characteristic of fully developed modern states.

Boroumand, L.: The untold story of the fight for human rights. - S. 64-79 Afshari, A.: The student movement's struggle. - S. 80-94

This article distinguishes civil society as idea from civil society as process. The idea of civil society provides a shared language, which obscures fundamental differences. 'Civil society' is the outcome of the process in which the idea of civil society is discursively constructed and used by donor agencies, international NGOs, the Ghanaian government and Ghanaian social organizations to legitimate their actions. (InWent/DÜI)

In relation to economic growth and political liberalization, the emergence of a civil society is one of the most significant social transformations which has taken place in Taiwan since the 1980s. The development of the non-profit sector has embarked on a new and unprecedented phase. This process is a dynamic component of social change and offers an interesting perspective on the emergence of a 'civil society', a concept sure to trigger off debate among scholars when applied to Chinese and/or Taiwanese contexts (Huang 1993; Ma 1994). While the legal framework and historical background of civic bodies are both highly relevant to law and political science, studying the working methods of these organizations in daily life, human relationships, team building and networking at a micro-social scale is highly consistent with an anthropological approach. Social organizations have the capacity to access those margins of society government bodies cannot easily reach. This process allows the state to delegate the management of politically sensitive social issues. Although the government has been slow to act in launching a national offensive, a modern AIDS campaign has gradually taken shape with the help of the non-profit sector - secular and religious organizations - working in conjunction with official bodies. The following topics will be discussed in this paper: The emergence of a civil society is investigated through an analysis of the development of the non-profit sector and the working methods of local NGOs. Specific questions related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a sensitive health issue, have shed an original light on the debate about civil society: official responses echo non-official organized responses to the epidemic threat. Finally, AIDS memorial rituals are described as voices of society, and the controversial issue of sex education is introduced.

In relation to economic growth and political liberalization, the emergence of a civil society is one of the most significant social transformations which has taken place in Taiwan since the 1980s. The development of the non-profit sector has embarked on a new and unprecedented phase. This process is a dynamic component of social change and offers an interesting perspective on the emergence of a 'civil society', a concept sure to trigger off debate among scholars when applied to Chinese and/or Taiwanese contexts (Huang 1993; Ma 1994). While the legal framework and historical background of civic bodies are both highly relevant to law and political science, studying the working methods of these organizations in daily life, human relationships, team building and networking at a micro-social scale is highly consistent with an anthropological approach. Social organizations have the capacity to access those margins of society government bodies cannot easily reach. This process allows the state to delegate the management of politically sensitive social issues. Although the government has been slow to act in launching a national offensive, a modern AIDS campaign has gradually taken shape with the help of the non-profit sector - secular and religious organizations - working in conjunction with official bodies. The following topics will be discussed in this paper: The emergence of a civil society is investigated through an analysis of the development of the non-profit sector and the working methods of local NGOs. Specific questions related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a sensitive health issue, have shed an original light on the debate about civil society: official responses echo non-official organized responses to the epidemic threat. Finally, AIDS memorial rituals are described as voices of society, and the controversial issue of sex education is introduced.

The shrinking of civil society—a problematic trend in a growing number of countries—often involves enacting legal measures to curtail the activity of civil society organizations and vilifying and/or harassing such organizations. Poland has been at the forefront of this trend since 2015. This article examines the mechanisms promoting elite replacement in Polish civil society, with a specific focus on the ways in which civil society actors have responded to these changes and the effectiveness of the state's efforts to establish new hierarchies of power. The article discusses the complex relation between research on civil society and elite theory, and examines the anti-elitist discourses concerning Polish civil society and the strategies employed by the state to gain more control over the third sector. Next, the analytical section focuses on the ways in which civil society actors respond to state-sponsored elite change and examines three types of relations between the state and NGOs in contemporary Poland: (1) resistance, (2) assimilation, and (3) opportunistic synergy. In closing, the article shows ways in which analyses of the transformation of civil society in Poland and other countries can be enriched by drawing on elite theory.

What is the transformative potential of civil society in the neoliberal era? This essay responds to John Keane's "Hopes for Civil Society." While civil society plays an integral role in democratic transition, its role in countries experiencing democratic backsliding or erosion is less clear. In the longstanding liberal democracies today, political party ties to civil society groups have weakened, parties are less differentiated on economic policy, and citizens increasingly turn to mass protest, rather than civic engagement, to express their grievances.