ABSTRACT

This book examines the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the impact that this has had on democratization processes in Nigeria from colonial times to the present.

Expanding notions of democracy, the author builds a theoretical understanding of civil society to show how it can be both antithetical to and an ally of the state in the struggle for democratization. Combining the neo-Gramscian framework with discursive perspectives from Habermas and Foucault, the book takes a dialectical approach that traces the incarnations of the state and civil society and relates the mutual connections of the two spaces.

This book will be of interest to scholars of African politics, democratization and civil society.

chapter |42 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|18 pages

Gramsci, Civil Society and Democracy

chapter 3|12 pages

Habermas, Foucault

Discourses on Civil Society and Democracy

chapter 4|14 pages

Dialectics of Political Change

chapter 5|18 pages

Relations of Forces in State and Civil Society

Synthesis and Assumptions

chapter 7|28 pages

Crises, State Mediation and Change

chapter 9|13 pages

Conclusion