Civil society
Civil society refers to the modern usage in sociology and politics a part of society or a type of society that have sprouted state action is not, but to the action and cooperation of individuals or social groups owes. The detailed meaning of the term civil society is accentuated aligned differently in different conceptions. A related and depending on lying to basically similar design used term is civil society.
- 6.1 generally
- 6.2 Special aspects
Different conceptions
As the field in a society
On the one referred to civil society an area within a society that has arisen between state, economic and private spheres - or: between state, market and family. The area is seen as a public space; in this act the people as individuals, in groups and in the state more or less independent associations, forms and with varying degree of organization, such initiatives, associations, social movements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-profit organizations ( NPO ). Prerequisite for civil society engagement are the individual and collective freedoms (eg, assembly and association and freedom of expression).
As a development direction of society, society model
Secondly, a trend of companies is with " civil society " means that can be described as civilization and democratization and to be possibly a development of representative democracy. In this line of discussion, the term civil society is used synonymously often. This often blurs the boundaries between a description and explanation of this trend on the one hand and the demand for his support on the other hand, that is, "civil society" becomes a political claim within the meaning of " democracy ".
This kind of concept of civil society has been discussed in particular for and in the Latin American dictatorships and the Eastern European countries before 1989, but also in Western societies representative - democratic, the term is associated with the requirement for a further democratization. It is including the participation of all citizens understood in social decisions, in the sense of grassroots democracy and participatory democracy. Even the newer concept of " cooperative democracy " is used in this debate.
In Antonio Gramsci
The term civil society was also used by the Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci ( 1891-1937 ). Gramsci in his Prison Notebooks dealt with the failure of socialist revolutions in the West and found the explanation in his concept of the integral state. The integral state includes not only the institutions of the classic bureaucratic state machinery that performs the monopoly of the state, but also the so -called civil society, understood as the set of all non-governmental organizations that have an impact on common sense and public opinion. Here are the arguments for cultural hegemony take place, and here they can, as Gramsci, out of the Revolutionary Left ( 'war of position " ) - not only in the classic revolutionary struggle against the oppressive state apparatus.
Conceptual history
The term civil society is derived from the Latin word societas civilis. This again goes back to the Greek koinonia politiké ( πολιτικὴ κοινωνία ), literally " political / public community" than an occasional name for the polis. Aristotle called for a community of citizens ( the Indianapolis residents: free citizens, hosts ), which together realize the good virtuous, as opposed to the domestic sphere ( oikos / οἶκος ) in which basic needs are secured.
The modern use of the term civil society goes back to the British sociologist Adam Ferguson ( civil society ). Civil society, in turn, was translated by Hegel in his Philosophy of Law with Civil Society.
Related terms
The term " civic engagement " refers to two activities that are addressed by these two meanings of civil society: on the one hand the joint commitment of citizens to solve smaller or larger problems that neither the state nor the market nor family are sufficiently soluble ( " with tackle " ), and secondly, the political influence of citizens on the state and the market ( " a say " )
The legal institution of mediation also shifted the resolution of conflicts back to the democratic civil society.
First time secular - - As a civil religion of the religious content of a political culture is understood, which is necessary after Robert N. Bellah, so that a democratic polity works.