This essay offers an analysis of arguments by Ernest Gellner, Jeno Szucz and George Shopflin. Considering civil society as a historical phenomenon, these authors attempt to clarify its essence by tracing the emergence of civil society in Western Europe, and then by employing comparative method, to explain its 'weakness' (or even its failure 'to emerge') in East Central Europe. The essay questions the efficiency of this type of analysis for understanding the phenomenon of civil society. It argues that the inefficiency of macro- and meso-scale analysis of civil society calls for a micro-scale reconsideration and a greater historical contextualisation of sociological and theoretical enquiries, and for a more informed dialogue between history and theory of civil society.