The concept of civil society is ubiquitous in debates about democracy in Africa. This article distinguishes civil society as idea from civil society as process. The idea of civil society provides a shared language, which obscures fundamental differences. The process of civil society refers to...

This book presents an original approach to understanding the relationship between official aid agencies and aid-receiving African governments. The first part provides a challenge to the hazy official claims of aid donors that they have stopped trying to force African governments to do what 'we'...

The idea of civil society contains a set of assumptions about the unity of civil society, the civility of civil society, the 'separateness' of civil society and the state, and the intrinsic relationship between civil society and democracy. All of these assumptions can be questioned by examining...