ABSTRACT
There have been two different discourses that have developed over the past twenty-five years, these being civil society in the area of development and stakeholder engagement in the area of sustainable development. This chapter reviews the three major versions of the civil society discourse (associational life, the good society and public sphere). It finds that they limit engagement by excluding key stakeholders. It also groups together key stakeholders into one space therefore reducing the voices of those individual stakeholders. It suggests that civil society works best to mitigate totalitarianism on both the left and right; however, as an organizing principle within democracy, it is found wanting.
