16 Facts About Civil society

Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.

Sometimes the term civil society is used in the more general sense of "the elements such as freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, etc, that make up a democratic society" .

Some have noted that the civil society actors have now obtained a remarkable amount of political power without anyone directly electing or appointing them.

However, as civil society can, under many definitions, include and be funded and directed by those businesses and institutions who support globalization, this is a contested use.

Rapid development of civil society on the global scale after the fall of the communist system was a part of neo-liberal strategies linked to the Washington Consensus.

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Civil society societies have become involved in the environmental policy making process.

From a historical perspective, the actual meaning of the concept of civil society has changed twice from its original, classical form.

Generally, civil society has been referred to as a political association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrain citizens from harming one another.

However, they did not hold that civil society was a separate realm from the state.

Civil society argued that these inequalities influence the choices that members are able to make in relation to the type of work they will do.

The diverse positions in Civil Society fall into three estates: the substantial estate, the formal estate, and the universal estate .

Political Civil society was autonomised into the state, which was in turn ruled by the bourgeois class .

Civil society considered the state to be the executive arm of the bourgeoisie, which would wither away once the working class took democratic control of society.

Civil society underlined the crucial role of civil society as the contributor of the cultural and ideological capital required for the survival of the hegemony of capitalism.

Jillian Schwedler points out that civil society emerges with the resurrection of the public sphere when individuals and groups begin to challenge boundaries of permissible behaviour – for example, by speaking out against the regime or demanding a government response to social needs – civil society begins to take shape.

Civil society organizations, known as civic organizations, include among others:.