Civil Society (PDF)

It is only a decade ago that the eighteenth-century distinction
between civil society and the state seemed old-fashioned, an object
of cynicism, even of outright hostility. In this important new
book, John Keane shows how, in a wholly unexpected reversal of
fortunes, this antiquated distinction has since become voguish
among politicians, academics, journalists, business leaders, relief
agencies and citizens' organizations.

John Keane examines the various sources and phases of the dramatic
world-wide popularization of the term. He traces its reappearance
in a wide range of contexts - from China to Tunisia, from South
Africa to the emerging European Union - and clarifies the
conflicting grammars and vocabularies of the language of civil
society. Considerable care is taken to highlight the different
possible meanings of the distinction between civil society and the
state. Keane also takes the reader into previously uncharted
intellectual territory by demonstrating that the civil society
perspective contains unharnessed potentials: that it is possible to
develop bold new images of civil society that alter the ways in
which we think about matters such as power, property, violence,
politics, publicity and democracy.

Written with style and imagination, this important book by John
Keane will be of great interest to students and scholars in
politics, media studies, sociology, social and political theory,
and to a broader public audience interested in the central debates
and political developments of our time.