Civil Society, Realized

Equipping the Mass Public to Express Choice and Negotiate Power

Bibliographic Data

ID5741553
AuthorsHahrie Han (0000-0002-5259-8943, corresponding author), Jae Yeon Kim (0000-0002-6533-7910)
Year2022
Volume699
Issue1
Pages175-185
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027162221077471
OpenAlexW4226434952
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited48

We examine the ways in which change in civil society has contributed to the erosion of democracy in the United States. Democracy demands that people commit to pluralistic self-determination, which means that people must be willing to seek power and also share it. We argue that civil society plays two important roles in sustaining people's willingness to do both: first, civil society cultivates a capacity for expressing choice; and second, it teaches capacities and provides opportunities for people to negotiate power. We show that in recent decades, civil society's emphasis has moved more toward expressing choice and away from the creation of venues for negotiating power. We conclude with recommendations for researchers, civil society leaders, funders, and policy-makers who are interested in committing to forms of civil society that take power seriously

Civil society · Commit · Democracy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Public relations · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Public Administration · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Media and Politics

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