What is Civil Society and How will it strengthen Bhutan

Journal of Bhutan Studies, 2001

2007

Civil Society Contrubutions to Democratic Governance, 2013

Encyclopedia of Social And Behavioral sciences

Historically, the idea of civil society takes two very different forms. In the first, civil society is 'political community' (societas ci ilis or koinonia politike) encompassing a state undifferentiated from society (Ellis 2000). Here, civil society is coterminous with the state: that is power relations ordered through law and institutions with the objective of ensuring social harmony. In the second, civil society is a selfregulating, self-governing body outside and often in opposition to the state, represented both as the nexus of societal associations expected to generate civility, social cohesion and morality, and as the site of reciprocal economic relations among individuals engaged in market exchange activity.

2011

Using the term civil society in the same breath as ‘conceptual ’ and ‘developing countries ’ might be regarded as bold. There is hardly any other term in social science that is more vague or Western-centric. “The history of thought over two hundred years has charged this designation with so many layers of meaning that it lacks sharpness of definition”1 bemoans Axel Honneth (1992, p. 61). “We have reached zero level in a history of semantic deterioration” states Volker Heins (2002, p. 17). Helmut Dubiel writes: “The uninterrupted boom enjoyed by the concept – despite synchronous ritual laments about its vagueness – is (...) a phenomenon in need of explanation. In spite of its limitless geographic, cultural, disciplinary and semantic dimension, it obviously still retains the aura of an unfulfilled theoretical promise ” (Dubiel, 2001, p. 135). Even though the boom enjoyed by the term ‘civil so-ciety ’ has its roots in the changes which have taken place in the East, the concept is of We...

civil society refers to the collective action in search of the good society

The paper examines how the meaning of the phrase Civil Society has undergone changes in its definition and the reasons behind the changes.

Development and Change, 2013

Review of (a) Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler (eds), International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Berlin: Springer, 2010,.and (b) Michael Edwards (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011

Development and Change, 2013

works as an independent researcher based in Amsterdam. Educated at Harvard, Princeton and the Institute of Social Studies, his professional activities and research since 1970, chiefly in Africa and former East Bloc countries, have concentrated on the aid system and NGOs, trade unions and social movements.