ABSTRACT
Introduction In this chapter, I will adopt a type of immanent critique that asks how the terms ‘civil society’ and ‘the public sphere’ have come to be used by political scientists working on the Middle East and South Asia, and compare that to the actual theoretical development of the terms. I will argue that attempts to locate public spheres and civil society in the region have, in their rush to find areas of society that are functionally equivalent to the model of civil society in the literature, overlooked key components of the original theory. The two myths I identify are (1) that civil society does not serve a normative purpose (i.e., that it does not aid in the legitimation of government) and (2) that the way in which discourse occurs inside the public sphere and civil society is irrelevant. Following a discussion of the origins of civil society inspired by critical theory, one which differs from the liberal tradition by rejecting an expansive reading of both civil society and the public sphere, I will try to develop an account of civil society that begins with the basic question: What it is that we expect civil society to do? I will proceed in two stages: first, I will take issue with the expansive understanding of civil society by developing a critique of contemporary work on the concept of civil society, by drawing on the sources of the revival of civil society discourse in the twentieth century. Second, I will use my own research on Afghanistan, and other research by other theorists whom I consider representative of the way theories of civil society have been applied to the region, to suggest additions that need to be made to the theoretical writings on the public sphere. I conclude by challenging the traditional way that civil society has been understood by researchers working on the Middle East and South Asia, and argue that they have ignored the role of discourse in the public sphere for legitimating government decisions.
