During the post-communist transition period, the formation of civil society institutions was a key clause for the transition to democracy. The civil society institutions have manifested themselves as an important partner in collective leadership, depending on specific development conditions, the population’s civic culture and the degree of tolerance of the established power. This process has been long and difficult, being influenced in particular by three factors that have discouraged the potential of the associative sector: the disagreements between civil society, the private sector and the state; the lack of a morality of public life that makes possible and effective civic control of the political power, and also the exaggerated power of the public sector in relation to the private and associative sector.