Suchergebnisse

Civil society has been a guiding concept for political activists in Eastern Europe for the past twenty-five years. The profound changes in the region since 1989 have provoked disagreement & confusion about the application of this concept. During the final decades of resistance to communist rule, civil society & government were seen as in an antagonistic relation; but when dissidents came to occupy governmental positions, some made the claim that "civil society is in power." It is argued that this claim misunderstands the functions of civil society & the distinct forms of power exercised by civil society & by government. Some key characteristics of the current transition regimes in Eastern Europe are discussed to illustrate the particular difficulties & challenges that civil society faces under the current political circumstances. AA

After describing the civil republican & pluralist/multiculturalist models of communitarianism, it is asserted that the latter paradigm must assist the former in resuscitating civil society. The principal obstacles to such an effort are identified as the fragmentation of civil society, the prevalence of inequality in communities, & civil society's dependence on volunteer labor. It is contended that individuals must become more involved in associational life to sustain political reform; moreover, political reform is necessary to combat various forms of inequality that plague civil society. Rather than strengthen associations, individuals must strive for a pluralist identity in which they participate in multiple associations. In addition, groups that perceive themselves as politically underrepresented must participate in democracy. Rather than providing volunteer workers with guaranteed salaries, an alternative that provides subsistence wages & benefits & allows individuals to maintain their volunteer status is advocated. It is concluded that neoliberalism must be eliminated for civil society to flourish. J. W. Parker

This title brings together competing theories of civil society with critical studies of the role of civil society in diverse situations and the way in which it has been promoted as the key to democratization. The combination of contemporary theory and practical applications provides valuable reading for students of civil society and contemporary social and political change, and its policy implications for Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

A review essay on books by (1) Ariel C. Armony, The Dubious Link: Civic Engagement and Democratization (Stanford, CA: Stanford U Press, 2004); (2) Carlos Forment, Democracy in Latin America: Civic Selfhood and Public Life in Mexico and Peru, 1760-1900 (Chicago: U Chicago Press, 2003); & (3) Marc Morje Howard, The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe (New York: Cambridge U Press, 2003). For much of the past two decades, students of democracy have operated under the spell of civil society. A new & extensive body of literature, however, suggests the limits of this evocative concept in explaining the making & maintenance of democratic regimes. Despite its recent popularity, civil society remains mired in conceptual confusion regarding what the term is meant to represent. More important, the theoretical agenda underpinning the civil society revival lacks much of a foundation in real-life politics. A central problem is the tendency to treat civil society's effects on politics in isolation from the political context. Adapted from the source document.

A Brazilian view of the World Social Forum, in its regional & international context, how the landscape of the world's Left has changed, & whether the ideologies of nongovernmental organization & civil society are capable of resisting what they criticize. Adapted from the source document.

Reconsiders the arguments put forward in Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848) in the context of recent debates in the US about the revival of civil society. It is suggested that the contemporary Left would do well to revisit the central role of politics in The Communist Manifesto as a means of organizing the working classes & subserving a wider economic revolution. Calls on the Left for greater attention to the institutions of civil society are taken to rely on Alexis de Tocqueville's view that the state represents the greatest threat to freedom. Evidence from recent scholarship is marshaled to demonstrate that civil society is fundamentally structured by class relations. Thus, it is argued that economic stratification represents the greatest threat to political freedom; a politics of social class must go through the state rather than ignore it. It is concluded that a revival of the labor movement will eventually shatter the leftist intelligentsia's fascination with culture, identity, & civil society. Meanwhile, it remains essential to stress the importance of the political struggle against it & for the state. D. M. Smith

At the moment, no other European city attracts so much fascination as the city of Berlin. An unrivalled symbol of modern urban life, Berlin is a dynamic city whose inhabitants, in the course of the past two centuries, have lived through both the rapid growth and the violent destruction of the institutions of civil society, several times over. This volume situates itself within these developments by presenting, for the first time in English, a sample of the best, recently written essays on contemporary civil societies, their structural problems, and their uncertain future, written by scholars