Civil Society: A Enquiry into the Usefulness of an Historical Term
Author(s)
Kumar, Krishan
Abstract
Civil society was referenced by many theoricians of the 1989 revolutions, in the west as well as in east central Europe. The hope is that civil society, as a concept and a program, will help post-communist societies out of their current political predicament. How reasonable is this hope? How useful is the concept of civil society at the present time, either in the east or the west? This paper first considers the historical career of the concept. It then goes on to examine its fruitfulness in the current conditions of western and eastern European society.
