In part III I chart the eclipse of the radical approach to civil society-as introduced in parts one and two by the liberal democratic model of civil society during the 1990s. I do this by focusing on academic debates about democratisation in the same two regions (Eastern Europe and Latin America), where the radical reading of civil society emerged most powerfully. What becomes apparent is the essentially statist and instrumentalist reading of civil society by an academe within, post 1989, liberal democratic categories are hegemonical to the extent that alternative readings of civil society are largely forgotten or rendered invisible.
In part IV I continue the task of considering alternative vision of civil society and democracy by looking at more recent challenges to the liberal democratic model.