Discuss the roles and functions of civil society in a democracy.

Civil society is a concept located strategically at the cross-section of important strands of intellectual developments in the social sciences. To take account of the diversity of the concept, CCS adopted an initial working definition that is meant to guide research activities and teaching, but is by no means to be interpreted as a rigid statement.

Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organisations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organisations, community groups, women’s organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, trades unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy group.

Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state (regardless of that state’s political system) and commercial institutions of the market. Democratic Functions of a Civil Society.

Q. 8. Discuss Karl Marx’s perspective on class. Ans. The Concept of Class: Ossowski (1967) proposes that there are three assumptions which are common to all conceptions of class society. They are as follows: 1. Classes are the most comprehensive groups in the social structure. They are differentiated groups in society, but are dependent on each other. 2. In a class, the membership of an individual is relatively present. 3. Each class is accorded certain privileges and discriminations that have a bearing on its social status. Thus, on the basis of social status, privileges, and discriminations, different classes are treated as superior or inferior. Marx identified the privilege of exploiting other men’s labour as the fundamental basis of class differentiation. Again, each class occupies a distinct position in the class hierarchy. The awareness of the place of one’s class in the class is referred to as class-consciousness. The other characteristic of class is social isolation which points to social distance and absence of close social contact between classes.

The democratic functions of civil society seem long recognized. As Almond and Verba conclude from the examination of the survey data from five nations–the organizational member, political or not, compared with the nonmember, is likely to consider himself more competence as a citizen, to be a more active participant in politics. The member, in contrast with the non-member, appears to approximate more closely what we have called the democratic citizen. He is competent, active, and open with his opinions (Almond and Verba 1963:320). The most striking finding is that any membership—passive membership or membership in a nonpolitical organization—has an impact on political competence, and thus on pluralism, one of the most important foundations of political democracy. (Almond and Verba 1963:321)

Nie, Powell and Prewitt also investigate the democratic functions of civil society in terms of its effects on political participation. As the density and complexity of economic and secondary organizations increases, greater proportions of the population find themselves in life situations that lead to increased political information, political awareness, sense of personal political efficacy, and other relevant attitudes. These attitude changes, in turn, lead to increase in political participation (Nie, Powell, and Prewitt 1969:808). 

Civil society has yet another democratic function, that of facilitating democratic transitions. Montesquia clearly believed from a theoretical perspective that civil society should function as a counterbalance to governments in order to inhibit their tyrannical tendencies; he also suggested that civil society actually did perform in this capacity (Harbeson 1994:26). This is enforced by the empirical finding by Inglehart that organizational membership does show a statistically significant linkage with changes in levels of democracy from 1990 to 1995 (Inglehart 1997:193). Weigle and Butterfield’s case studies of the democratic transitions in the Eastern European countries and in the former Soviet Union also show the important role played by the civil society. 

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