The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law
Volume 6, Issue 1, September 2003
A publication of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
Religion and NGOs
Introductory Letter from the Guest Editors
W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Elizabeth A. Sewell
A Practical Comparison of the Laws of Religion of Colombia and Chile
Scott E. Isaacson
Faith-Based NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mojca Leban
Refah Partisi (The Welfare Party) and Others v. Turkey
Christian Moe
The Impact of the New Czech Law on Churches
Petr Pajas
Russian Federation Constitutional Court Decisions on Russia's 1997 Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations"
Marina Thomas
God and Caesar: Personal Reflections on Politics and Religion
Shirley Williams
Articles
Should Foundations Exist in Perpetuity?
Robert O. Bothwell
The Charity/Business Duet: Harmony or Discord?
Andrew Phillips (Lord Phillips of Sudbury)
From Benin to Baltimore: Civil Society and Its Limits
Sally J. Scott, Ph.D.
Reviews
Global Civil Society: An Overview
By Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and Regina List
Reviewed by Jonathan Nelms
The Changing and Unchanging Face of U.S. Civil Society
By Marcella Ridlen Ray
Civil Society: The American Model and Third World Development
By Howard J. Wiarda
Freedom in the World 2003: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties
By Freedom House
Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America
Edited by Hugh Heclo and Wilfred M. McClay
The State of Nonprofit America
Edited by Lester M. Salamon
Terrorism and Development: Using Social and Economic Development to Inhibit a Resurgence of Terrorism
By Kim Cragin and Peter Chalk
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The Changing and Unchanging Face of U.S. Civil Society
By Marcella Ridlen Ray. Foreword by Francis Fukuyama.
New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 2002.
269 pp. $39.95.
Civil society is not merely a set of institutions, writes Marcella Ridlen Ray. It is also a process: "talking, meeting, reasoning, and acting together on varied matters," in a fashion that can be "spontaneous or customary, formal or informal, but ... is necessarily voluntary and autonomous."
A senior fellow at George Mason University's School of Public Policy in Fairfax, Virginia, Ray undertakes an empirical study focusing on five elements of democratic civil society: "voluntary association, diversity of association, communication, autonomy of voluntary association, and mediation of democratic tension." She finds American civil society thriving but evolving--in particular, "more democratic and flexible than ever." By contrast to such scholars as Robert Putnam, author of the influential 1995 essay "Bowling Alone," Ray believes that Americans are still active participants in civil society. "Fortunately," she concludes, "the vulnerability of U.S. civil society is not pivotally attributable to apathy, indifference, or self-centeredness of the public. Rather, the greatest challenges it confronts--sustaining autonomy and effectively mediating conflict and consensus--actually stem from successes in achieving democratic goals."