Today, Germany and the Netherlands are two "most similar cases" and yet they took rather different routes towards modernity. While The Netherlands represent a textbook-example of a modern society that early in the country's history turned to pragmatism, Germany looks back upon a legacy of sticking by ideology. Does pragmatism versus ideology today still hold sway? The concept of civil society serves as the focal point of reference for an in-depth comparison of the neighboring countries. For the use in class the volume starts out with a chapter focusing on the art of comparing. The contributions show that political science and history share a common conception as regards the analysis of civil society. The second chapter focuses on civil society per se as a contested term and a multi-facetted concept in The Netherlands and Germany. The articles address the historical development and embeddedness of civil society in each country, the size and scope of the civil society sector, and the phenomenon of hybridization of civil society organizations. The contributions of the third part of the volume pose the question of how civil society has gradually changed in both Germany as well as The Netherlands.