Reflecting on civil society worldwide

In the late 1990s, when CIVICUS designed its Civil Society Index (CSI), there was a lot of hype around the term ‘civil society’ and its alleged powers to curb corruption and authoritarian governance and to redress social exclusion, poverty and other social ills. Through the Index, CIVICUS sought a more nuanced and realistic understanding of civil society. It has now completed the full implementation of the CSI in 53 countries and published the findings in the Global Survey of the State of Civil Society.[1] What have we learned from this about the state of civil society around the world?