Organizing Civil Society in Russia and China: A Comparative Approach James Richter & Walter F. Hatch # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Despite their authoritarian tendencies, the current regimes in Russia and China have both actively promoted stronger civil societies. This article explores this apparent paradox for insights both into the meaning of civil society and into the nature of governance in these two regimes. It argues that the social organizations that make up civil society both inhabit and construct a public sphere where individuals assist in their own governance. Recognizing that administered societies cannot compete in a globalizing economy, these regimes look to social organizations to perform functions previously left to the state, but at the same time use similar repertoires of regulation, revenue control, and repression to ensure such organizations do not transgress acceptable boundaries. Still, different notions of state– society relations in the two countries have led to different patterns of social organizations in the two countries. In Russia, a sharp distinction between state and society has contributed to a government strategy that seeks to dominate the public sphere leaving little room for autonomous civic action. In China, by contrast, deeply embedded institutionalized accounts see state and society as overlapping spheres of activity, creating pyramid-like structures encompassing both state-based and more autonomous organizations, and allowing more room for negotiation between the two. Keywords Civil society . Market reform . Authoritarianism . Russia . China Ever since the velvet revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, the term “civil society” has been intimately associated with democratic consolidation (see especially Diamond 1994). A robust civil society, it was argued, empowers citizens to participate in their own governance, express their demands more effectively, and keep states accountable. It seems curious, then, that the regimes in both China and Russia, not known for their commitment to democracy, should actively promote a stronger civil society in their own countries. Leaders in the Chinese Communist Party have praised the virtues of a “small government, big society” Int J Polit Cult Soc DOI 10.1007/s10767-013-9148-5 J. Richter (*) Department of Politics, Bates College, Lewiston, ME 04240, USA e-mail: jrichter@bates.edu W. F. Hatch Department of Government, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA e-mail: wfhatch@colby.edu