chapter 8
...................................................................................................................................................DEVELOPMENT OF
CIVIL SOCIETY
...................................................................................................................................................jose harris
No concept in political theory and political science has had, and continues to have,
a more ambiguous and elusive character than that of civil society. From the last days
of the Roman republic down to the present day, both the term ‘‘civil society’’ and
the practical arrangements that it signiWes have been understood by historians,
theorists, and contemporary actors in a multiplicity of ways. Some of these under-
standings, while diVering in emphasis and detail, have nevertheless recognizably
stemmed from a shared intellectual tradition. Others have been deeply and dia-
metrically opposed to each other, to such an extent that the term sometimes seems
to refer to institutions, values, analytical categories, and visions of civilization, that
are not just very diVerent but mutually exclusive. Thus, one central tradition of
writing about civil society has portrayed it as virtually coterminous with govern-
ment, law-enforcement, and the cluster of institutions that comprise ‘‘the state’’
(Model 1 ). A very diVerent tradition has identiWed civil society with private prop-
erty rights, commercial capitalism, and the various legal, institutional, and cultural
support-systems that these entail (Model 2 ). Yet another line of thought has seen
civil society as quintessentially composed of voluntaristic, non-proWt-making, civic
and mutual-help movements, coexisting with but nevertheless quite distinct in
ethos and function from the spheres of both states and markets (Model 3 ). And in
very recent discourse ‘‘civil society’’ has come to be increasingly identiWed with the
enunciation of universal standards of democracy, fair procedures, the rule of law,