Civil Society: History and Possibilities

Cambridge University Press, 9/6/2001
EAN 9780521633444, ISBN10: 0521633443

Hardcover, 344 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English

Civil society is one of the most used - and abused - concepts in current political thinking. In this important collection of essays, the concept is subjected to rigorous analysis by an international team of contributors, all of whom seek to encourage the historical and comparative understanding of political thought. The volume is divided into two parts: the first section analyses the meaning of civil society in different theoretical traditions of Western philosophy. In the second section, contributors consider the theoretical and practical contexts in which the notion of civil society has been invoked in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These essays demonstrate how an influential Western idea like civil society is itself altered and innovatively modified by the specific contexts of intellectual and practical life in the societies of the South.

Part I. Theoretical Traditions in the West
1. The development of civil society Sunil Khilnani
2. Concepts of civil society in pre-modern Europe Anthony Black
3. The contemporary political significance of John Locke's conception of civil society John Dunn
4. Civil society in the Scottish Enlightenment Fania Oz Salzberger
5. Enlightenment and the institution of society Keith Michael Baker
6. Hegel and the economics of civil society Gareth Stedman Jones
7. Civil society in the Marxist tradition Joseph Femia
Part II. Arguments in the South
8. Civil society in extra-European perspective Jack Goody
9. On civil and political societies in post-colonial democracies Partha Chatterjee
10. Civil society and the fate of the modern Republic in Latin America Luis Castro Leiva and Anthony Pagden
11. The western concept of civil society in the context of Chinese history Thomas Metzger
12. Civil society, community and democracy in the Middle East Sami Zubaida
13. Mistaking 'Governance' for politics
Foreign aid, civil society and democracy Rob Jenkins
14. The promise of 'civil society' in the South Geoffrey Hawthorn
15. In search of civil society Sudipta Kaviraj.