Since the emergence of the dissident "parallel polis" in Eastern Europe, civil society has become a "new superpower," influencing democratic transformations, human rights, and international co-operation; co-designing economic trends, security and defense; reshaping the information society; and generating new ideas on the environment, health, and the "good life." This volume seeks to compare and reassess the role of civil society in the rich West, the poorer South, and the quickly expanding East in the context of the twenty-first century's challenges. It presents a novel perspective on civic movements testing John Keane's notion of "monitory democracy": an emerging order of public scrutiny and monitoring of power.

Nina Witoszek is Research Professor and Research Director at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo.

Introduction
Lars Trägårdh and Nina Witoszek

Chapter 1. The Dawn of Monitory Democracy
John Keane

Chapter 2. Civil Society in the Age of Crisis
John Clark

Chapter 3. Digital Deprivation: New Media, Civil Society and Sustainability
Paddy Coulter and Cathy Baldwin

Chapter 4. "Monitory" versus "Managed" Democracy: Does Civil Society Matter in Contemporary Russia?
Kathryn Stoner-Weiss

Chapter 5. Monitory Democracy and Ecological Civilization in the People's Republic of China
James Miller

Chapter 6. Tenuous Spaces: Civil Society in Burma/Myanmar
David Steinberg

Chapter 7. Kenya's Green Belt Movement: Contributions, Conflict, Contradictions, and Complications in a Prominent ENGO
Bron Taylor

Chapter 8. A New Direction in Transnational Civil Society: The Politics of Muslim NGO Coalitions
Zeynep Atalay

Chapter 9. Anti-Totalitarian Feminism? Civic Resistance in Iran
Nina Witoszek and Haideh Daragahi

Chapter 10. Associative Democracy in the Swedish Welfare State
Lars Trägårdh

Chapter 11. State Capture of Civil Society: Effects of Patronage in the Norwegian Aid Industry
Asle Toje

Chapter 12. Civil Society as a Driver of Governance Innovation: A Montesquieu Perspective
Atle Midttun

Chapter 13. Afterword: An Ounce of Action is Worth a Ton of Theory
Bill McKibben prefaced by Nina Witoszek and Lars Trägårdh

Bibliography
Index