Civil Society: Adventures of the Concept before and after 1989

Respecting the perspective that 'civil society' has recently been revived not by academics as a purely theoretical concept but rather by social and political actors as a practical political idea, the article seeks to follow the metamorphoses that the idea's content and meaning have un...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Czech sociological review 1997-04, Vol.5 (1), p.3-22
Main Author: MARADA, RADIM
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civics
Civil Society
Communist Societies
Czech Republic
Democracy
Morality
Political Development
Political History
Political movements
Political parties
Political representation
Postcommunist Societies
Public life
Resistance
Social movements
Social Theories
State politics
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Respecting the perspective that 'civil society' has recently been revived not by academics as a purely theoretical concept but rather by social and political actors as a practical political idea, the article seeks to follow the metamorphoses that the idea's content and meaning have undergone in changing historical circumstances over the past two decades, especially as reflected in the Czech (and Slovak) discussion. In a historical sequence, it identifies three different political and social contexts that have endowed the idea with specific contents and meanings, and it distinguishes these as three major stages of the metamorphoses. It labels the stages as 'moral defence before the state' (before 1989), 'mobilising the polity' (1989-1991), and 'balancing the state's institutional arrangement' (since 1994). As it is the last meaning that is contested today in the Czech discussion, some typical problematic points of this case are raised. Finally, a way is suggested in which critical social theory could reflect upon some deficits of the notion of civil society as employed today, so that the latter can still be retained as a normative idea.
ISSN:1210-3861