International Civil Society

Abstract

The existence of a civil society is not a new theme; however, we can still wonder if today one can speak about an international or global civil society. Is there really an international civil society or a western civil society which is centred upon such different social, economic, political and cultural realities? According to some, international civil society may have emerged in 1992, soonafter the fall of communism in Eastern Europe; other people, especially those who lay stress on disputing the world economic model, believe that international civil society was clearly born in 1999. International civil society may have evolved from the new nongovernmental organisations which developed pretty much all over the world particularly during the last decades of the 20th century. The concept of civil society is often employed as a global or homogenous category. If international civil society does not exist yet, some of its practices have nowadays gone beyond the stage of embryonic formula.