As I describe above, the concept of civil society has now attracted much attention from scholars and policy-makers through a neo-Tocquevillean thesis suggesting that a vibrant civil society is vital to a healthy democracy. Nevertheless, this thesis is gradually challenged by some in-depth analyses of the internal and external effects associations actually have on individuals and the wider society. These critical works demonstrate for us, the contrary, how a vibrant civil society can weaken, threaten, and/or undermine democracy. Suffice it to say that a great deal of contemporary theory of democracy and civil society fails to recognize the dangers civil society can pose for democracy. I tend to agree with two critics, Bob Edwards and Michael Foley, when they point out that "if civil society is a beachhead secure enough to be of use in thwarting tyrannical regimes, what 18 prevents it from being used to undermine democratic government? Similar arguments about the serious danger of civil society are made by John Keane in his work investigating the relationship between civil society and violence. Keane's thesis points to one of the most disturbing facts It is... vital to point out that civil society can never become a haven of nonviolent harmony. Those who work for a (more) civil society must recognize not only that violence is often the antithesis of civil society, but also that very known form of civil society tends to produce this same violent antithesis. This inner contradiction within the workings of civil society- that it tends to be a peaceful haven of incivility- has been obscured by the originally eighteenth-century theory of the upward spiral towards civilization and, more recently, by the strange silence about violence within the renaissance of the theory of state and civil society Why does paying attention to the negative aspects of uncivil society matter? I find that contemporary theorists are too optimistic in their perception that civil society is inherently democratic and the seedbed of democracy. The evidence we have considered weighs against such optimism. Therefore we should be careful not to presuppose that the strong existence of civic associations will necessarily support democracy and foster civic virtues. The conclusion derived from the literature in this section is: there is no direct and positive relationship between a rich associational life and a stable democracy. On the contrary, "civil society" should be considered a politically neutral term, neither inherently good nor inherently bad, but rather its effects are dependent on the various factors. Obviously, under the context of a weak and