Dissident writings as political theory on civil society and democracy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11426547
AutoresMarlies Glasius (autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen38
Número2
Páginas343-364
Fecha de publicación2012-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReview of International Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0260-2105 • E-ISSN: 1469-9044
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0260210511000155
OpenAlexW2126866426
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas20

This article offers an analysis of precisely how civil society and its relation to democracy were conceptualised by its East European and South American proponents in their pre-democratic contexts, through an examination of declarations, newspaper articles, samizdat essays, diaries, letters from prison, academic articles and prize acceptance speeches written at the time. The analysis of these source materials is organised under three main themes: the first concerns activists' understanding of the nature of the regime, its aims and its relation to society; the second relates to the features of the emergent civil society the writers of these documents desired, observed, and helped to create; and the final section discusses their strategies and aspirations in relation to ‘democratisation’. On the basis of an analysis of commonalities in ideas across these two very different regional and ideological contexts, hypotheses are formulated as building blocks for a political theory of civil society under authoritarian rule, which may apply in yet other, contemporary contexts

Authoritarianism · Civil society · Democracy · Democratization · Epistemology · Ideology · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Social science · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law