By Muthiah Alagappa
This ebook is the 1st entire, systematic research of the relationship among civil society and political swap in Asia—change towards open, participatory, and responsible politics. Its findings recommend that the hyperlink among a colourful civil society and democracy is indeterminate: specific sorts of civil society organisations aid democracy, yet others have the aptitude to undermine it.
Further, the examine argues that whereas civil society is a key think about political swap, democratic transition and consolidation hinge at the improvement of powerful political events, legislatures, and kingdom associations. Rooted in a typical definition of civil society, a powerful analytical framework, and wealthy empirical fabric, the analyses and conclusions of the booklet could have an enduring impression at the realizing of civil society and its relation to democracy in Asia and round the world.
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Extra info for Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space
Sample text
Civil society in India and in many Asian Introduction 13 countries is thus not a novel feature, although its manifestations and aims may have altered over time and differ from place to place. Nevertheless, scholars do not always agree on the relevance and utility of the concept for Asian societies. One group of scholars argues that civil society is a Western concept that is not applicable to Confucian societies, contending that the search for it in such societies is tenuous. Citing tradition—conformity and orthodoxy, benevolent rule by a dominating state, and the penetration of society by the state—these scholars often advance a cultural distinctiveness argument that in many ways mirrors the Asian values debate of the 1980s and early 1990s (Steinberg 1997).
Third, state–civil society interaction in Asia is not necessarily confrontational. The relationship varies widely across countries and has undergone transformation in several of them. Fourth, present civil society–state relations in Asia span a broad spectrum. The final set of findings centers on the relationship between civil and political societies. Here we advance two propositions. First, there is much overlap between civil and political societies; the boundary separating them is porous. Second, the development of civil society is not necessarily detrimental to the development of political society.
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