The impetus for political reform, they argue, comes from outside the government, by individuals or groups that provide the seed for emergence or resurrection of civil society. It is soft-liners or moderates within the regimes that see the benefits of gradually loosening constraints on associability and political contestation. Jean Cohen and Andrew Arato, in their seminal work, Civil Society and Political Theory, see civil society as essential for a healthy democratic 2 For Cohen and Arato, civil society permits participation and communicative society. interactions between individuals. They argue that a vibrant associational life is supplementary to the political institutions of representative democracy Several thinkers trace the value of civil society to Alexis de Tocqueville, who in his study of Democracy in America, saw an active associational life as the hallmark of democratic society. A century and a half ago, Tocqueville noted that "Americans of all 13 ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. Today neo-Tocquevilleans thus puts special emphasis on the ability of associational life in general and the habits of association in particular to foster patterns of civility in the actions of citizens in a democratic polity. Robert Putnam, the American social scientist and noted neo-Tocquevillean, argued that civil society is crucial to "making democracy work He proposed that the associations of civil society can create "social capital," a set of social practices and network of social interaction which involves civic participation and ideas of trust and reciprocity between participants. According to Putnam: Civil associations contribute to the effectiveness and stability of democratic government...both because of their "internal" effects on individual members and because of their "external effects on the wider polity. Internally, associations in in their members habits of cooperation, solidarity, and public spiritedness... participation in civic organizations inculcates skills of cooperation as well as a sense of shared