Democracy or Civil Society?

Abstract

The aim of this article is, first, to provide a justification for the continued usefulness of the historical term ‘civil society’, and second, to examine in this context the challenges arising ahead in the postcommunist European societies which, after the collapse of communism, have adopted the model of liberal democracy. One of their crucial goals is the renewal of civil society, which is one of the main conditions of a properly functioning democratic order. I argue that the development of civil society in postcommunist countries is one of the major pre-conditions for their political stability. It should be stressed that civil society is not only a descriptive category but also a normative one for it presupposes a certain level of civic culture and civic consciousness. Historically, if we look at the theories of Smith, Hegel or Marx, civil society was understood as a bourgeois society. At present, what is at stake in the debates animating political and social theory in both East and West, is the question of what version of civil society should prevail. I shall argue that the development of civil society and the democratisation of the social and political spheres should be seen as a mutual process leading to political and economic stability. The actual experience of postcommunist societies in East-Central Europe, attempting liberalisation and democratisation, shows that this mutual process needs a more comprehensive understanding and theoretical explanation.