The Triumph of Civil Society
Important role played by civil society in a democratic transition is explored using the example of the Ukranian Orange Revolution. Despite the uniqueness of every revolution, there are two ways civil society's influence is important in all revolutions. The first is in the correlation between civil society's level of maturity & the form & manner of public protest. The second is reflected in the eventual outcome of the democratic transition. Other universal factors include evidence of government subversion of the election process & widespread fraud. Two key advantages in the case of the Ukraine were the existence of a unique concept of civil society that favored loose communities attuned to political information & analysis, & the development of a civil society that was open to the establishment of election monitoring & polling. Additionally important was an informed citizenry, & the presence of volunteers trained by Yellow Pora in underground organizing techniques. The seventeen day nonviolent protest in Maidan is asserted to have created a qualitatively new type of civil society, one that transcended the need for connection with state or government, & one centered on a new civic nationalism. The author concludes by arguing that the nonviolent & innovative strategies of Ukrainian civil society so important in the Orange Revolution, exemplify the importance of a strong civil society. J. Harwell