Civil Society Theory: Paine

Introduction

These are the times that try men’s souls….Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.

Tom Paine

Modernity gave birth to a movement called “modernism,” which was revolutionary in its impact, both in politics and culture. It spawned a rigorous civil society. The debate about civil society in modern social and political thought started in the Old World but quickly crossed the Atlantic to the New World of the American colonies. Essential to the widening of the debate was Tom Paine (1737–1809), who dominated progressive political thought in Britain, France and America during the age of revolutionary struggle against absolutist tyranny in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. It was the simplicity and clarity of Tom Paine’s philosophy that made him so popular with an emerging political public ready for change. He questioned the source of government and its purpose, concluding sovereignty belongs to the people through the democratic expression of their will in civil...