Civil society

Behind the Berlin wall

Civil society emerges when individuals and groups begin to challenge boundaries of permissible behaviour — for example, by speaking out against the regime or demanding a government response to social needs — civil society begins to be shaped.

Well-known dissident in former Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, later president of post-communist Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic consequently. Authoritarian regimes often use imprisonment as an approach to deal with civil society. Many dissidents became political prisoners just because of their opinion.

In Eastern Europe, dissidents such as Václav Havel represented the sphere of civic associations threatened by the state-dominated regimes of Communist Eastern Europe. Their basic rights were denied them. As dissidents were labeled the people who were against the state regime, the „renegates“ or „seceders“. Since 1970 this term was also used to mark opposition artists and intellectuals. They were deprived of the right of freedom of speech, the right to assemble freely and to work or even travel abroad. These rights were limited and inaccessible in practice. Therefore, the civil society in these countries is now in the early stage of its development.