Civil Society, Pluralization and the Boundary Problem

Abstract

If reformers, as discussed in the last chapter, are willing to recognize the legitimacy of opposition and embark on democratization, there remain two major problems to be resolved: the boundary problem and the integration problem arising from pluralization. The first raises fundamental questions over national unity and over who the ‘people’ are in a democratizing political community. The second concerns the unity and stability of political order in an increasingly pluralizing society. These problems are two sides of the one coin, analytically separable but practically linked.