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Smismans, Stijn --- "Civil Society and European Governance: From Concepts to Research Agenda" [2006] ELECD 130; in Smismans, Stijn (ed), "Civil Society and Legitimate European Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Civil Society and Legitimate European Governance

Editor(s): Smismans, Stijn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843769460

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Civil Society and European Governance: From Concepts to Research Agenda

Author(s): Smismans, Stijn

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

1. Civil society and European
governance: from concepts to research
agenda
Stijn Smismans

CIVIL SOCIETY FROM ARISTOTLE TO PRODI

The concept of civil society has a long tradition and has been given many
interpretations, from being identified with political community by Aristotle to
meaning nearly the opposite since Hegel, namely a differentiation of society
in which civil society is defined as more or less formalised institutions which
form an autonomous social sphere that is distinct from the State. In contrast to
this dualistic model, in today's complex modern society it has become more
common to define civil society as a social sphere distinct from both State and
market.
Depending on the definition, civil society has been attributed different roles
in a democratic society (for an overview, see: Foley and Edwards 1997;
Rossteutscher 2000). In particular since the 1990s the claimed democratic
benefits of civil society have been stressed in the context of an increasing
dissatisfaction with present-day representative democracy, which has often
been linked to processes of technocratisation of governance, individualisation
of society and globalisation of markets and centres of decision-making.
Communitarians, for instance, have stressed the role of traditional family,
functioning neighbourhoods and volunteer associations to revive feelings of
community and shared values in reply to `the self-destroying capacities of
liberalism and an increasingly ego-centrist attitude towards life' (Etzioni
1998). In parallel, the debate on `social capital' (for example, Putnam 1993
and 1995; Fukuyama 1995) has stressed that the quality of democratic politics
and ...