What Is Civil Sphere Theory? a Very Short Introduction

Introducing this invited session on "Civil Sphere Theory Outside the North," I provide a very brief description of what Civil Sphere Theory (CST) is and how it has been revised and advanced in the decade plus since its initial publication. After outlining a sociological account of the cultural and institutional conditions that sustain democracy, as well as of the contradictions that can undermine it, I describe a project underway that examines the conditions of the civil sphere, and the relevance of CST, in Latin America, East Asia, Europe, and India.