Power, money and the good : civil society between the state and market

The article focuses upon the recent tendency among Czech intellectuals and politicians to locate the core of civil society in the so called third (non-profit and non­government) sector. It contrasts the theoretically based hopes connected to the idea of civil society (as a sphere of independent activity and non-coerced social integration) with some functional (political, bureaucratic, legal, monetary) imperatives that the third sector activities have to face. In doing so, the text pays special atention to the specific historical conditions in a country that finds itself in the period of transition to the market economy and democratic political regime.