The astonishing rapidity of developments in Eastern Europe has left the Western press struggling to keep pace with events. But the rapid and apparently irreversible decline of communist power in Eastern Europe did not occur overnight. Nor is it the result of a sudden and inexplicably generous decision by those in power to accept a democratic model imported from abroad.
Civil society refers to the voluntary association of individuals outside the orbit of the state.
It is the counterstructure that escapes government control and is capable of challenging the communist monopoly on power. Belonging to these associations, at least during their early stages, takes moral courage, and many within the silent majority have preferred to refrain from direct participation. The concept of civil society is invoked by the opponents of the communist establishments and has been the basis for much of the strategy of the movements. Yet the term and theory receive little mention in the Western press. And until the political earthquake of Solidarity's relegalization, the Western media continued their time-honored tradition of focusing on the conflicts within communist bureaucracies.