ABSTRACT
Fascinated onlookers in the United States and elsewhere saw and heard the newly democratic countries espouse values, such as democracy and free markets, that had long been central to Western experience. Civil society is characterized by its independence and by the fact that many of its constituent organizations are of a voluntary nature. Today "civil society" is often taken to denote a contradistinction to "state society." In the immediate aftermath of the revolutionary events in Central and Eastern Europe, many there quickly recognized that the development of an independent sector could be important to the creation of civil society, and thus sought assistance from US private foundations precisely because of their reputation for expertise in such endeavors. Over the past few years foundations have tended to focus on a relatively narrow set of public policy issues in Eastern and Central Europe.
