One more crack at this. A post over at GonePublic notes the consequence of the wall coming down for social science:
Before 1989 the language of civil society was slowly entering back into the lexicon of political theory, after dusting off lots of old copies of Hegel texts. But after 1989 the language of civil society flooded into every crevice of academic, philanthopic, and development activity.
That’s not a small change–vocabulary matters. I could quibble with the use of Hegel here (he may have meant something a bit different by the term), but the point is well taken.
In poli sci especially, we used to talk about states and governments like they were the only game in town. Now even IR types want to talk about networks and activists and (God forbid) even ‘global civil society’, whatever that turns out to be. The results might be a little woolly, but they have the virtue of being, well, closer to right. One more little revolution to celebrate while you’re at it.
Tags: 1989, civil society, Hegel, social science