Civil Society and Democratization

Abstract

Among the structural theories of democratization discussed in the previous chapter, there has arisen a model of which holds that democratic transition or consolidation is improbable or even impossible without the development of a vibrant and robust civil society. According to this view, democratization is understood as a “double democratization,” a process of restructuring of state power in parallel with a certain form of restructuring or development of civil society (Held, 1987). Such arguments beg the question as to what civil society is, how it is supposed to achieve or support democratization, and what attributes and qualities civil society ought to have in order to achieve the same. In addition to introducing the discourses on the role of civil society and democracy, this chapter defines the terminologies that are commonly used in civil society literature.