Abstract
This article sets out to review the extant literature on civil society. Indeed the literature on civil society abounds with several views and perspectives, especially on the theoretical debates on the concept. However, in order to avoid the unnecessary entanglement of the unending theoretical debates that have characterized the subject, the article focuses on the activities and operations as well as the usefulness of civil society in the twenty first century. The article consequently tries to identify the literature that discusses the activities of civil society across the globe. It begins by giving a general background to the concept of civil society. This is then followed by discussions on civil society and how it relates to democracy and democratic consolidation and development in different parts of the world with particular emphasis on Africa. It then examines the activities of CSOs in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region (with emphasis on Malaysia). It further examines the changing nature of CSOs in the midst of global crisis by discussing how civil society has operated in challenging times amidst financial crisis, terrorism, etc. It concludes by suggesting some new ways of understanding civil society.
Highlights
The concept of civil society traces its origins largely to the age of enlightenment in the works of Adam Ferguson who at the time associated it with the development of the economic state and the decline of despotic and corrupt governments in Europe (Ferguson, 1767)
civil society organizations (CSOs) in the late 1990s were key instruments in producing the National Poverty Eradication Strategy (NPES) which was an important document that outlines Tanzania’s plans that aimed at reducing poverty in the country (Mercer, 2003). Notwithstanding this achievement, Mercer (2003) has indicated that in Tanzania there is a clear evidence to show that only a tiny group of elite professional groups/CSOs, and the collaborating global NGOs, have enjoyed much benefits from the seemingly partnership created by international donors and CSOs
What civil society really is depends on the context in which the concept is been applied
Summary
The concept of civil society traces its origins largely to the age of enlightenment in the works of Adam Ferguson who at the time associated it with the development of the economic state and the decline of despotic and corrupt governments in Europe (Ferguson, 1767). The caveat must be sent to the reader that the works of certain prominent theorists of civil society such as Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith, David Hume and Adam Seligman, as well as others who fall within what Jensen (2006) refers to as the Scottish Concept are not reviewed. The reason for this approach is to avoid the entanglement of the extreme theory-laden approach to understanding civil society. Employing diverse theoretical approaches in analyzing the social and political models of civil society will eventually produce different understandings of what CSOs are and are not, and what they ought to do or refrain from doing
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