| Abstract: | The terminology of “civil society” has gained currency in recent discussions of democratic movements around the globe. Although
less grandiose in its implications than claims about the “end of history,” this terminology does suggest a certain universality
in human experience. We argue that this claim of universality is warranted, but also problematic. We establish the relevance
of our argument in reference to the literatures in African and Indian studies.
We note first that the common employments of the concept ignore the theoretical and historical specificity of civil society:
civil society is used to label any group or movement opposed to the state, regardless of its intent or character, or used
so generically that it is indistinguishable from the term “society.” Instead, we argue that civil society is a sphere of social
life, involving a stabilization of a system of rights, constituting human beings as individuals, both as citizens in relation
to the state and as legal persons in the economy and the sphere of private association.
Thus, we link the wide resonance of the concept to its embeddedness in the logic of liberal capitalist society and the capitalist
global division of labor. This conception allows us to see that, although the emergence of a sphere of civil society involves
at least minimal democranization and is supportive of struggles for further democratization, the status of democracy is also
made quite problematic by the tensions endemic to liberal capitalism and the processes of uneven development within international
capitalism. Our usage also allows us to distinguish more clearly movements dedicated to the construction of civil society
from those that may count actually as counter-civil society movements.
David L. Blaney received his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. He is on
leave from Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana as a visiting scholar for the 1993–94 academic year at The Elliott School of
International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20052. His main research interests include international
political economy, culture and international relations theory, and democratic theory.
Mustapha Kamal Pasha received his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. Currently,
he is an assistant professor in the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C. 20016. His main
research interests include international political economy, with particular regard to the Third World, and South Asian politics. |
