Civil Society in Burma.

... Civil Society in Burma David I. Steinberg, in his article, "A Void In Myanmar: Civil Society In Burma," contends that the gaping void in Burma is it's lack of civil society. "The essential characteristic of what we call civil society lies in its autonomy from government" (Steinberg 1). Steinberg, in citing the civil society's importance in today's world goes on to state that "if civil society is strong and if citizens band together for the common good based on a sense of community or programmatic trust and efficacy, then this trust and efficacy somehow translate into overall trust in the political process of democracy or democratization and lead to diffusion of the centralized power of the state. Civil society is thus an essential element of political pluralism--the diffusion of power that is the hallmark of modern democracies" (Steinberg 2). The author then goes onto site the many different people's movements that

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