Exploring the Puzzles, Paradoxes and Limitations of Civil Society as a Development Agent in Developing Countries

Purpose of this paper is to explore the puzzles, paradoxes and limitation of civil society as a development agent in developing countries especially in Pakistani and Indian contexts. The concept of civil society is not new. In past many thinkers and Philosophers focused their attention to refine the idea of civil society in comparison to the state and the market. Hegel, Ferguson and Fukuyama (Hall, 1995) were the champions of the idea of the civil society as a development agent and brought this idea in the limelight in the last two decades when the state failed to provide development assistance to the poorer of the poor in third world countries