ABSTRACT
The demise of communist regimes and subsequent democratization efforts provide a particular incentive to learn more about democratic civil society. Fundamental to the role of democratic civil society is the idea of an intermediate, flexible tension that stabilizes the system. This chapter provides empirical substance to each of five theoretical components of democratic civil society—voluntary association, diversity of association, communication, autonomy of voluntary association, and mediation of democratic tension. Civil society stands in the way of total concentration of power and complete mobilization of the population by the elite. The United States entered the decade of the sixties with an assessment from preeminent social scientists that its civil society was healthy. Civil society, with its intermediate relational network, is thus the means to stability, liberty, and an improving democracy. Aristotle, Machiavelli, John Locke, Edmund Burke, and Alexis de Tocqueville were significant contributors to the idea that intermediate institutions and principles were important to political stability.
