The Civil Sphere in East Asia

by Jeffrey C. Alexander

"Civil Sphere Theory (CST) aims to describe and explain the moral codes and institutional foundations of democratic solidarity, as it manifests itself within a distinct social sphere. The civil sphere is a space, as much symbolic and aspirational as institutional and physical, within which people perform and enact democratic values, forming a community that includes and excludes on the basis of binary codes that define civil and anticivil motives, relations, and institutions, and that negotiates and pushes its boundaries in relation to other spheres such as the market, the state,...