Civil Society, Third Edition

Abstract

In recent years, a steady decline in civil society organization membership and participation has been reported from developed and developing nations. To understand this phenomenon it is imperative to understand what civil society is; because there are a lot of variations among scholars, practitioners and policy makers regarding the subject, there is considerable confusion about the term. In the book ‘Civil Society’, Michael Edwards attempts to clarify the meaning of civil society, why we need it, its challenges and ways to overcome the challenges it faces. In this updated third edition, Edwards brings fresh insights from the latest global socio-political events and considers how they influence our understanding of civil society. One major improvement from the first edition (2004) is the application of an integrated systems approach to understanding civil society which is better than the focus on associational life alone. Civil society is a broad term. It is so broad that many governments, journalists, funding agencies, academics and the public see it as an aspiration in their struggles for a better world. However, their definitions and approaches vary. As the author mentions ‘depending on whose version one follows civil society is either a specific product of the nation-state and capitalism that arose spontaneously to mediate conflicts between social life and the market economy when the industrial revolution fractured traditional bonds of kind and community; or a universal expression of the collective life of individuals that is at work in all countries and stages of development, but one that is expressed in different ways according to history and culture’ (p. 3). It is this ambiguity that the book addresses. The core principle of civil society is to provide space for the poor and discriminated groups to participate in political and public debates, which are free from dominating groups. Despite the best objectives, civil society is under threat from many forces, especially political groups, repressive governments and market mechanisms. As a result, the book demands that every generation adopt a shared responsibility to nurture and promote these values using relevant and available tools.