Civil Society, the State, and International NGOs

The current revival of interest in the concept of civil society has proceeded in several phases since the 1970s, with shifts in how the term is used (Keane 1998). In all academic discussions of civil society – as should be clear from chapters in this volume – the question of state-society relations and the degree to which society comprises a sphere autonomous from the State have been the central issues (Keane 1988b, 1998; Gellner 1991; Seligman 1992). When the term “civil society” first reappeared in academic discourse in the context of new dissident movements in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and then later in the context of democratic transitions in that region, it was used to portray society as separate from and in conflict with the State (Keane 1988b; Rau 1991; Miller 1992).

This chapter seeks to advance this debate and show how institutions of civil society can be both separate from and partly dependent on the State for growth. Although civil society needs to be understood in relation to the State, it does not necessarily stand in Opposition to it (Schwartz, this volume). Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofit organizations – in many ways the quintessential institutions of civil society – provide clear illustrations of this fact, and recent studies have shown how complicated and interdependent their relations with the State often are.