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Real Civil Societies

Real Civil Societies
Dilemmas of Institutionalization

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June 1998 | 256 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
In recent social and political theory, the term "civil society" has achieved renewed currency. Used in a normative sense, the term describes a form of social organization that is neither economic nor political, in which individuals have rights while the community evidences solidarity and inclusion. Written from an empirical social-science perspective, this volume is a critical examination of the normative sense of "civil society." To what extent do actual societies exhibit the features of the "ideal-type" society; what happens to the ideals of civil society when they are economically, politically, and socially institutionalized; how do race and ethnicity impact the idea of civil society; and how can the idea be understood in the context of the nation state? Real Civil Societies is a comprehensive examination of the concept by a group of international scholars. It includes analyses of civil society and democracy, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and postcommunism. It will be an essential reference for students of sociology, social theory, and political science.

Jeffrey C Alexander
Civil Society I, II, III: Constructing an Empirical Concept from Normative Controversies and Historical Transformations

Elisa P Reis
Banfield's Amoral Familism Revisited
Implications of High Inequality Structures for Civil Society

Michael Pusey
Between Economic Dissolution and the Return of the Social
The Contest for Civil Society in Australia

Luis Roniger
Civil Society, Patronage, and Democracy
G[um]oran Ahrne
Civil Society and Uncivil Organizations
Jeffrey C Alexander
Citizen and Enemy as Symbolic Classification
On the Polarizing Discourse of Civil Society

Philip Smith
Barbarism and Civility in the Discourses of Fascism, Communism and Democracy
Variations on a Set of Themes

Ronald N Jacobs
The Racial Discourse of Civil Society
The Rodney King Affair and the City of Los Angeles

David Zaret
Neither Faith nor Commerce
Printing and the Unintended Origins of English Public Opinion

Piotr Sztompka
Mistrusting Civility
Predicament of Post-Communist Society

V[ac]ictor P[ac]erez-D[ac]iaz
The Public Sphere and a European Civil Society

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