An Attempt to Evaluate the Development of Arab Civil Society

Arab civil society exists, and is sustained through, an interactive relationship with its surrounding socioeconomic and political environment. An attempt to identify the changes in and interaction of Arab civil society and developments in the Arab region reveals several important issues. The relationship between civil society and the state is characterized by varying levels of distrust, conflict, and tension. Civil society organizations are naturally part and parcel of society at large. A study of Arab civil society indicates important changes in terms of the players, not only from the perspective of global civil society, as some contemporary studies tend to consider, but also from a national perspective, at the level of each Arab country and, from a local perspective, within each country.