Abstract
The striving of individuals and groups to lead an independent life within a society they regard as alien or hostile is an ancient phenomenon. One need only think of the early Christians under Roman rule; Jews in the ghetto or the shtetl of Eastern Europe; dissenting or non-conformist Protestants in 17th century England; Catholic or Buddhist monks in monasteries; Mennonites or Hutterites; communes in early 19th century America; the counter-culture of the 20th century. Sometimes these individuals and groups sought to remould the society of which they were an unwilling part; sometimes they tried to withdraw entirely from society and live their own life in communities isolated from the world around them.
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Notes
Skilling, Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe (London, 1989).
S. Frederick Starr, ‘Soviet Union: A Civil Society’, Foreign Policy, no. 70 (Spring 1988), p. 33.
Vera Tolz, ‘Informal Groups in the USSR’, Washington Quarterly, 11, no. 2 (Spring 1988), pp. 137–44.
Cited by James P. Scanlan, ‘Reforms and Civil Society in the USSR’, Problems of Communism, XXXVII (2) (March-April 1988), pp. 42–3.
John Keane (ed.), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives (London and New York, 1988), especially Keane, ‘Despotism and Democracy; The Origins and Development of the Distinction Between Civil Society and the State, 1750–1850’.
For a full discussion of opposition, see Tony R. Judt, ‘The Dilemmas of Dissidence; The Politics of Opposition in East-Central Europe’, Eastern European Politics and Societies, 2 (2) (Spring 1988), pp. 185–240.
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© 1991 H. Gordon Skilling and Paul Wilson
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Skilling, H.G. (1991). Introductory Essay. In: Skilling, H.G., Wilson, P. (eds) Civic Freedom in Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11117-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11117-6_1
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