Approaches to the Analysis of Civil Society and the State (First Draft)

This paper presents a short methodological account of an analytical procedure for studying the concept of civil society and its appropriation in different theoretical and practical contexts. It was initially conceived as a briefing note for the joint ECPR/JPSA project on ‘civil society ’ in Europe and Asia (especially Japan). It has since been elaborated for wider consumption but it still remains an essentially methodological note rather than a substantive contribution to the discussion of civil society. In this sense it may also serve readers interested in other concepts and theories in political science. In its present form the paper has four main parts: (a) a general analysis of modes of philosophical enquiry and their relevance to political theory; (b) an application of this model to the case of civil society; (c) a brief critique of possible meanings of civil society and their utility in social and political analysis; and (d) some recommendations for further work. 1. Approaches to Political Theory It is conventional to distinguish four modes of philosophical enquiry: ontology, epistemology, methodology, and deontological and/or consequential ethics. Ontology refers, of course, to the nature and properties of being or existence and the categorial structure of reality. A derivative meaning, more important for our purposes, is ‘the set of things whose existence is acknowledged by a particular theory or system of thought ’ (Lowe 1995: 634). Epistemology in turn refers to the nature of knowledge (or belief), its very possibility, its defining features and scope, its substantive conditions and sources, and the limits of knowledge and its justification. Methodology can be defined for present purposes as being concerned with general rules for gaining and testing (scientific) knowledge, on the assumption that such knowledge is possible