ABSTRACT
Civil society in Eastern Europe finds it hard to avoid comparisons with the period of 1989-90, when the concept provided a framework for massive mobilization around the fall of Soviet socialism (I prefer this term to the commonly used ‘communism’, as the East European states neither called themselves communist, nor were in essence such) raising hopes, also beyond the region, for a new form of politics. The prominence achieved during this period is long gone but the concept seems to have taken root in Eastern Europe for good, developing along different paths in response to the different social and political environments. This differentiation means that it is more appropriate to speak of ‘civil societies’ than ‘a civil society’ of Eastern Europe.
