ABSTRACT
The concept of civil society is fundamental to the achievement of an authentic democracy. It provides a framework for citizenship participation and action autonomous of State authority and control. It creates the conditions in which individual citizens, associations, societies and other group interests may achieve a voluntary, legal and hopefully harmonious but not subservient relationship with the State. The countries that comprised the former Soviet Union have emerged in recent decades from the control of a political system that regarded civil society as a challenge to its authority.
