ABSTRACT
For a society to become democratic, the power balance in civil society has to shift. Civil society is the public sphere distinguished from the state, the economy and the web of family and kin relations. It comprises all social groups, associations and institutions that are not strictly production-related, nor governmental or familial in character. Democratic participation in political decision-making will develop and be sustained only if the economic and cultural power of dominant groups is counterbalanced in civil society by the organizational power of subordinate classes. Excerpts from Evelyne Huber, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and John D. Stephens, “The Impact of Economic Development on Democracy,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (1993): Reprinted by permission of the American Economic Association. The three power clusters—relative class power, the role of the state, and the impact of transnational power structures—are closely interrelated.
