Civil Society
In classical political theory, civil society is a normative
concept. This is especially so insofar as civil society
specifies that associational life – in a metaphorical space
between the household, the market, and the state – neutralises
the individualism of modernity, enables pursuit of multiple
projects, and allows monitoring of the state.
Rather than see this space as possessed of a single essence,
that of solidarity, Chandhoke, drawing upon the insights of
Hegel and Gramsci, holds that civil society is a site of
multiple struggles between different sorts of democratic and
anti-democratic projects. In democracies, civil society has to
be Janus faced, with one face turned towards the state as a
condensate of power and the other towards anti-democratic
forces within its own sphere.
Civil society is a necessary precondition for democracy, but
we should take care not to romanticise the sphere. It should
rather be seen as the theatre of history where the politics of
affirmation and contestation play out, with sometimes
expected, and sometimes unexpected, consequences.
Essential Reading:
Chandhoke, Neera 1995. State and Civil Society: Explorations
in Political Theory. New Delhi, Sage Publications
Chandhoke, Neera 2005. ‘The Taming of Civil Society’ Seminar
545
Further Reading:
Alagappa, Muthiah (ed) 2004 Civil Society and Political Change
in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space. Stanford
University Press
Bayat, Asef 2013. Life as Politics: How Ordinary People
Changed the Middle East. Stanford University Press
Cohen, Jean and Andrew Arato, 1994. Civil Society and
Political Theory. Massachusetts, MIT Press
Questions:
Why, in your opinion, is civil
precondition for democracy?
society
a
necessary
For Hegel, civil society embodied the achievements as well as
the dangers of modernity. Discuss
Elaborate the role played by civil society in the ‘Arab
Spring’
Why does Gramsci see civil society as the site for hegemony?
Submitted by Neera Chandhoke