Civil society, public sphere, and democratization: Reviewing the latin american debate in the era of democratic disconfiguration

Abstract

This article analyzes the paradigm of civil society in the context of deconfigured democracies. The new realities of the political system challenge many assumptions of civil society theory since the concept became a cornerstone of a critical theory of democratization that challenged the dominant paradigm of democratic elitism. This understanding of civil society makes reevaluating the purely electoral understanding of democracy, incorporating the former as a substantial element for the functioning and legitimation of its institutions. In this context, some developments of this theory are described to explore to what extent the proposed understanding of civil society and the public sphere remains valid or requires substantive revision.