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This essay addresses two controversies on the relationship between civil society and democratization in post-communist countries. It contradicts a tendency to dismiss civil society as a myth, ideology, or framing device for social movements and instead demonstrates that civil society is a real material force that has played a critical role in democratic breakthroughs in the region. It also criticizes the tendency to characterize post-communist civil society as either strong or weak in a blanket fashion. Instead, it shows that looking at differences in the strength of civil society at moments of transition is a good indicator of how durable that transition will be. This is illustrated with empirical work on both the breakthrough years of 1989-1991 and the period of the color revolutions in the 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines what has happened to civil society in Poland and other post-communist states since the collapse of communist states. Four factors in the weakening of civil society; Demobilization of insurgent civil society; Decapitation through success; Post-totalitarianism; Social transformation.