ABSTRACT
What do we understand by the term ‘civil society’? How does it arise? How is it related to pluralism, democracy, and democratization? If it has a tendency towards disintegration or self-destruction, does that threaten the consolidation of democratic regimes, or does it merely exacerbate anxieties about the quality of our ‘really existing’ democracies (polyarchies)? If it develops a capacity for selfpreservation, does that necessarily reinforce the deepening of political democracy, or could it come at the expense of the universalism and non-discrimination required for democratic authenticity?
