Conditions of Liberty

Western democracies are "open societies" in which neither the state nor religion try to achieve a monopoly of power or the exclusive claim on people's hearts. In between the state and the family are countless other institutions, from trade unions to stamp collecting clubs, from student organizations to churches and protest movements. This is the civil society. Before the fall of communism in 1989, all this was prescribed. The state (the Communist Party) controlled everything. In the Middle East (Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia especially), this remains the case. In Eastern Europe there is a burgeoning civil society. In fundamentalist Islamic society there is none. Why not? This book tries to find out why.