Civil society: all articles

Russia’s government, faced with an explosive rise in drug-taking, is not quite alone in resisting the approach of harm reduction promoted by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, argues Elizabeth Rigbey, responding to openDemocracy’s article Russia’s drugs problem: blame the West

While wooing the West with talk of democracy, President Saakashvili has ruthlessly pursued his goal of controlling the media, especially television, says Robin Llewellyn

The extreme right has harnessed the power of Britain's twenty-first century connectivity, revolutionising the threat to our multicultural society.

Alexander Podrabinek, a former Soviet dissident, provoked a furore when he criticised pro-USSR revisionism on his blog

In 2010, Kazakhstan takes over the chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Increasingly strident attempts to muzzle independent voices in the Kazakh media suggests how the government is preparing itself, says Irada Huseinova

An evolving common ground of open-minded, web-savvy citizens is creating a renewed civic culture of dialogue across the United States. It needs support at the centre too, says Michael Edwards.

The foundation of a healthy civil society, reflects Michael Edwards, is a marriage of two human faculties often undervalued or misunderstood: reason and love.