Publication

This paper discusses the conceptual travels of civil society, its role in the post-totalitarian context, and its depoliticisation. The author argues that if civil society is to become a meaningful concept once more, its appropriation must be challenged and its definition must be based upon the meanings that people attach to it; it must be returned to the people. The concept of civil society in Eastern Europe clearly expresses many of the hopes and desires of people emerging from communist systems, with its emphasis upon genuine participatory democracy, moral politics, and communitarian principles. While these may be commendable principles, they are incompatible with many aspects of western liberal capitalist democracy and with its model of civil society. Moreover, they cannot be realised – if at all – without change of a genuinely revolutionary nature; change which must occur at the deeper structural levels of politics and economics as well as in civil society.