Page "Civil society" Paragraph 29

By the end of the 1990s civil society was seen less as a panacea amid the growth of the anti-globalization movement and the transition of many countries to democracy ; instead, civil society was increasingly called on to justify its legitimacy and democratic credentials.

This led to the creation by the UN of a high level panel on civil society.

However, in the 1990s with the emergence of the nongovernmental organizations and the New Social Movements ( NSMs ) on a global scale, civil society as a third sector became treated as a key terrain of strategic action to construct ‘ an alternative social and world order .’ Post-modern civil society theory has now largely returned to a more neutral stance, but with marked differences between the study of the phenomena in richer societies and writing on civil society in developing states.