ABSTRACT
After having been suppressed for from four to seven decades under communism, the various churches have played an important role in the postcommunist transformation of Central and Eastern Europe and the activities of civil society within them. Civil society, as I shall be using the term here, denotes the realm of self-organisation of citizens in a given state for the purpose of pursuing more or less specific objectives: material interests, moral/ethical, ethnic goals or even hobbies. The more highly structured of these associations are often called ‘non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs). Familiar examples of NGOs range from environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to women’s groups like the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL), Country Women’s Association (CWA) and the ALP Women’s Caucus; from educational associations such as parents’ and citizens’ associations, to professional bodies such as the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and human rights bodies like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society of George Soros.
