Analysing Civil Society in Weak States

Abstract

To explore how civil society constitutes itself in weak states and how the state and other factors, such as a country's historical legacy, its political system, its ethnic composition, its majority religion, or its level of economic growth, influence the development of national civil societies, this study takes the empirical, analytical literature on civil society as a starting point (e.g. Alexander 1998; Guan 2004; Lauth 2003; Lewis 2001; Wischermann 2005). Notably, this literature suggests that the concept of civil society must be systematically contextualized. A relational understanding that consequently relates civil society to the context of action in which it operates is a fruitful approach to this endeavour (Lorch 2006). Building on the works of Alexander (1998, pp. 7f.), Gosewinkel (2003), Gosewinkel and Rucht (2004), Gosewinkel et al. (2004) and Croissant et al. (2000, pp. 11ff.), such a relational approach assumes that in real, existing civil societies, normative characteristics, such as "civility", the generation of social capital and the performance of certain democratic functions, can exist only in degrees. Concurrently, the relational approach likewise supposes that real, existing civil societies will also always display certain dark sides, such as clientelism and organizational hierarchies, and that the relationship between the democratic features and dark sides within such real, existing civil societies depends on the scope of action available to civil society actors.