DEMOCRACYdecidedly uncivil’’ (Hall 1995). But democracy
depends on civil society (Somers 1993). This view
echoes Tocqueville’s assertion that the knowledge
of how to combine is fundamental to democracy
(Tocqueville 1969). Already attracting significant
attention, much room remains to answer ques-
tions about the relationship between civil society
and democracy.
In conclusion, it is well to remember that there
are many forms of democracy: those with weaker
or stronger civil liberties; those with weaker or
stronger civil societies; those with weaker or strong-
er tolerance for diversity. Nor can it be assumed
that these different forms are internally consis-
tent: the rights of the community to choose what it
wishes to be, and the rights of the individual to live
as he or she wishes, are not easily reconciled.
It is also well to remember that democracy is
not inevitable (Berger 1992). Neither, we should
also recall, is democracy a simple outcome that,
once achieved, is a permanent condition (Friedman
1998). Democracy can be strengthened; democra-
cy can be weakened. And it can, as it has in the
past, disappear. While democracy is today in the
ascendant, the lessons of the French Revolution
and of Weimar Germany should not be forgotten;
although in both instances democracy was regained,
it was not regained quickly or without cost. And in
Germany, as in Japan, democracy was not re-
gained from within, but imposed from without.
History should teach us that we still have much to
learn about democracy.
(SEE ALSO: Capitalism, Development, Inequality, Civil Socie-
ty, Individualism in Less Developed Countries, Political
Sociology, Rational Choice Theory.)
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