Social communication and democracy. Associations and civil society in the transnational perspective 1750–1914

What do voluntary public associations mean for democracy? This question has become the subject of lively discussions after the collapse of state socialism and a gradual abandonment of the Western model of the state of universal well -being - discussions focused around the concept of "civil society". The answer can give an appeal to the past, namely, to the "Golden Age" of public associations between enlightenment and the First World War. Political theorists from Aleksis de Tuquilus to Max Weber, as well as not so well-known practices from Boston to St. Petersburg, believed that a society without voluntary associations would inevitably slide down to despotism. The center of this study is social practice in different countries and regions (Russia, German states, including Austria -Hungary, France, the British Empire, USA), which often arose under the influence of general ideas, but the political consequences could have opposite