State and Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory

About the Book

Political theorists and activists have of late become increasingly enamoured with the concept of 'civil society'. They see it as the salvation of democratic societies and have used this concept to reconstruct both radical left-oriented and liberal political theories. In this thought-provoking book, Neera Chandhoke argues that to focus on civil society in abstraction from the state and to conceive of it as comprising everything that is not the state constitutes a theoretically flawed stance. She positions her analysis against the state-centric theories of political explanation that have come to dominate the intellectual world, particularly since the 1970s, as well as against studies that use the concept of civil society in isolation, without considering how the state fashions many of the processes in this sphere. The author argues instead that civil society can only be understood by referring to the politics of the state and vice versa. Through an extensive reading and interpretation of the literature in political theory, this study constructs an entirely fresh theory of civil society that can be used to promote democratic participation and responsibility. A pathbreaking study that differs from purely theoretical exercises by addressing itself to praxis-oriented politics, it will be widely welcomed by students of political and social theory, political science, sociology and history, as also by political activists and the general reader interested in the concepts of state and civil society.