For activists, especially Eastern European dissidents struggling against Communist dictatorships, civil society offered a language of volunteerism and freedom. No wonder, then, that the idea of civil society went from theoretical and academic conceptualization to fodder for politicians in record time. Left, right, and center found something appealing in the idea. In Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, organizations were founded to promote civil society in American life. Clearly the idea and the national mood worked in tandem.
Some ideas fail because they never make the light of day.
The idea of civil society, many critics charged, failed because it became too popular. One hears this mostly among academics, who rightly, if often intemperately, see it as their mission to question any received or conventional wisdom. For Jean Cohen, who, with Andrew Arato, wrote a massive tome tracing the intellectual history of civil society, the concept that originated out of Hegelian philosophy is inevitably corrupted and cheapened when American politicians try to use it in their speeches. Civil society, from his perspective, is an anachronism. While one ought always to welcome criticism of any idea, these kinds of theoretical points strike me as off the mark.