Measuring and Comparing Civil Societies

Abstract

In most countries (Australia is an exception) the term ‘civil society’ is widely used by social researchers, activists and government officials. However its analytical value is limited by its great variety of meanings. The article proposes that if ‘civil society’ is to be of any use analytically it should be capable of being measured. It outlines two related efforts to measure civil society and to compare it cross nationally and identifies several problems with those approaches.

Keywords

• civil society
• measuring civil society
• nonprofit organisations.