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

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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 society a necessary

precondition for democracy?

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