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Dissident writings as political theory on civil society and democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2011

MARLIES GLASIUS
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Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 343 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2011

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References

1 I will refer to the sources from these regions as ‘East European’ and ‘South American’ respectively, even though both of these regions obviously encompass more countries than the six under consideration here.

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