The Weakness of Postcommunist Civil Society

Issue Date January 2002
Volume 13
Issue 1
Page Numbers 157-169
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Read the full essay here.

Recent studies suggest that civil society in the postcommunist countries is significantly weaker than in other types of democracies, old or new. Can this legacy of communism be overcome? If not, what are the implications for democracy?

About the Author

Marc Morjé Howard is assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. This article draws on his book, The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2002).

View all work by Marc Morjé Howard

Further Reading

Volume 18, Issue 3

The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has been traditionally depicted as a place where formal institutional rules are largely irrelevant-yet in the past fifteen years these rules have come to matter, and this trend…

Volume 28, Issue 3

India’s Democracy at 70: Civil Society and Its Shadow

Read the full essay here. The relationship between democracy and civil society is not straightforward. Angry crowds can stymie the functioning of the democratic process, institutions, and governance. Drawing on…

Volume 16, Issue 3

International Linkage and Democratization

The role of international factors varied greatly across the post-Cold War transitions to democracy, but the intensity and results of external democratizing pressure depended on two variables: linkage to the…