Klaus, Havel and the debate over civil society in the Czech Republic†

Abstract

The term ‘civil society’ played a central role in a dispute between Klaus and Havel in the mid-1990s. The use of such an academic term in practical politics requires an explanation. It appears that its meaning is inevitably imprecise and its greatest use is in a polemical context. The dispute grew out of the particular context of the early 1990s, following the apparent victory of a spontaneous and decentralized movement over a centralized power structure. Havel's use of the term built from his pre-1989 thinking and from various Western writers to give a unified basis, linked to moral principles, for his opposition to certain aspects of the Klaus government's policies that related to the control and decentralization of power. Klaus, basing himself on Friedmanite thinking, resisted these steps and tried to build a united political party around a narrow base of social interests. Those using the term civil society appeared to him as opponents of his project and he subjected their views to powerful polemical attack. Havel's involvement helped give coherence to some of the opposition to Klaus's government, but the outcome depended on political forces and events that went beyond both protagonists' conceptions. With the consolidation of various institutional structures, the term has lost its prominent place in political debate.