ABSTRACT
My objective in this chapter is not to argue for the existence of global civil
society (GCS) but rather to ask what it is and what has produced it. Is GCS
a space or locus of sovereign agents or merely a structural effect? Does it
wield direct power over states, or it is a mere epiphenomenon, a reflection of
the state system? Is GCS an institutional phenomenon – the result of the
exercise of power by other agents and actors acting within and through
institutions – or is it a product of that power through which society is pro-
duced, constituted by the social roles and relations growing out of contemporary states and markets? In surveying the growing literature on GCS,
one can find advocates of each of these, as well as other perspectives. This is
not wholly surprising, since there is hardly a consensus to be found about
the origins of domestic civil societies or their relationship to state and
market (Cohen and Arato 1992; Colas 2002; Lipschutz 2006).
