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.

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.

By arguing that state power must be understood through its law and administration continuum, and that civil society must be understood through its administration by the state, this book offers an original and highly provocative contribution to social and political thought, challenging previous Marxist theories of the state and reasserting the importance of the state-civil society distinction to contemporary Marxism.

Since its publication in 2004, Civil Society has become a standard work of reference for all those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action in the contemporary world. In this thoroughly-revised edition, Michael Edwards updates the arguments and evidence presented in the original and adds major new material on issues such as civil society in Africa and the Middle East, global civil society, information technology and new forms of citizen organizing. He explains how in the future the pressures of state encroachment, resurgent individualism, and old and familiar forces of nationalism and fundamentalism in new clothes will test and re-shape the practice of citizen action in both positive and negative ways. Civil Society will help readers of all persuasions to navigate these choppy waters with greater understanding, insight and success. Colleges and universities, foundations and NGOs, public policy-makers, journalists and commissions of inquiry – all have used Edwards’s book to understand and strengthen the vital role that civil society can play in deepening democracy, re-building community, and addressing poverty, inequality and injustice. This new edition will be required reading for anyone who is interested in creating a better world through citizen action.

Explores ways to make democracy work better, with particular focus on the integral role of local institutions.

"In the Name of Civil Society examines Philippine politics in a highly original and provocative way. Hedman’s detailed analysis shows how dominant elites in the Philippines shore up the structures of liberal democracy in order to ensure their continued hegemony over Philippine society. This book will be of interest to everyone concerned with civil society and the processes of democratization and democracy in capitalist societies." —Paul D. Hutchcroft, University of Wisconsin, Madison What is the politics of civil society? Focusing on the Philippines—home to the mother of all election-watch movements, the original People Power revolt, and one of the largest and most diverse NGO populations in the world—Eva-Lotta Hedman offers a critique that goes against the grain of much other current scholarship. Her highly original work challenges celebratory and universalist accounts that tend to reify "civil society" as a unified and coherent entity, and to ascribe a single meaning and automatic trajectory to its role in democratization. She shows how mobilization in the name of civil society is contingent on the intercession of citizens and performative displays of citizenship—as opposed to other appeals and articulations of identity, such as class. In short, Hedman argues, the very definitions of "civil" and "society" are at stake. Based on extensive research spanning the course of a decade (1991–2001), this study offers a powerful analysis of Philippine politics and society inspired by the writings of Antonio Gramsci. It draws on a rich collection of sources from archives, interviews, newspapers, and participant-observation. It identifies a cycle of recurring "crises of authority," involving mounting threats—from above and below—to oligarchical democracy in the Philippines. Tracing the trajectory of Gramscian "dominant bloc" of social forces, Hedman shows how each such crisis in the Philippines promotes a countermobilization by the "intellectuals" of the dominant bloc: the capitalist class, the Catholic Church, and the U.S. government. In documenting the capacity of so-called "secondary associations" (business, lay, professional) to project moral and intellectual leadership in each of these crises, this study sheds new light on the forces and dynamics of change and continuity in Philippine politics and society.