Toward A Civil Society

The demise of Communism has not only affected Eastern Europe but also the countries of the West where a far-reaching examination of political and economic systems has begun. This collection of essays by internationally renowned scholars of political theory from Europe and the United States explores both the concept and the reality of civil society and its institutions.

Addressing the need for marshaling the resources of education to help promote a more civil society, this book argues that education has a critical role to play in challenging the dominant views of politics and education. Service learning, or academically based community service,is seen as a promising educational pedagogy that can help students acquire civic virtue and serve as a mechanism to enable institutions of higher education become stronger community partners. However, there is currently is a lack of theoretical grounding for the service-learning movement; consequently,service learning is in danger of being co-opted by academic traditionalism, which could vitiate service learning's social transformative potential and in fact undermine efforts at democratic revitalization. The author provides a basic explanation of service learning and how it is connected to promoting civic virtue. It examines the underlying public philosophy debate between weak and strong democracy theorists, or procedural and civic republicanism. This book argues that certain approaches to service learning, such as the voluntarist or charity model, the experiential education model, and the justice model are ineffective because of their association with weak democracy theory or procedural republicanism. The central argument of this book is that a progressive communitarian public philosophy maintaining that individuals attain meaning and significance in the context of community is the most appropriate grounding for service learning.

To preserve social order the state must administer civil society, with a threefold purpose - the fashioning of the market, the constitution of legal subjectivity and the subsumption of struggle. In Administering Civil Society Mark Neocleous offers a rethinking of the state-civil society distinction through the idea of political administration. This is achieved through an original reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and an insightful critique of Foucault's account of power and administration. The outcome is a highly provocative theory of state power.

Civil Society focuses on the processes and politics of dismantling "corporate" (state directed) economies and political systems in the Third World. Howard Wiarda explores how this separation would create a move toward civil societies of free associability and democracy, as well as the limits to and pitfalls of this approach. The book examines case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and includes such critical countries as South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt.

Examines complex and diverse links between philanthropy, civil society and globalization as a single theme that goes beyond standard economic interpretations Has the potential to generate interest among a wider audience of academics, public policy makers and administrators in the field of philanthropy, civil society and globalization