What Does civil society Mean
A society is a group of people who share certain characteristics and who have common goals. Civil , on the other hand, is that which is associated with a citizen or that is not part of the orbit of the religious or the military.
The idea of civil society , in this way, is linked to the grouping of individuals who carry out activities in the private sphere. The concept, however, can be understood in a number of ways.
For the social sciences , civil society is the group of subjects who, assuming their role as citizens, develop certain actions to influence the public sphere . In this sense, civil society can act in politics without being part of the government or even without belonging to a political party or other type of organization.
It can be said that civil society functions autonomously from the State , organizing itself independently and voluntarily. If a group of neighbors decides to congregate in a square to protest a wave of robberies, demanding the resignation of the Chief of Police and demanding a greater number of agents in the street, it could be indicated that it is a protest by civil society. The claim can then be taken, or not, by the government or by some political sector that channels it in some way towards the structures where the State's decisions are made .
One of the names associated with this concept in the field of social sciences is Alexis Henri Charles de Clérel , also known as Alexis de Tocqueville. He is a politician, historian, jurist and thinker of French origin who lived in the early 19th century, considered one of the most significant ideologues of liberalism, as well as a precursor of the so-called classical sociology. According to its definition of the concept, we understand civil society as a group of institutions and civic organizations of character voluntary and social, that perform mediation between the state and individuals .
Alexis de Tocqueville also contemplated the presence of non-governmental organizations within this set of civil society, those that do not pursue the profit motive, such as foundations, associations, professional associations, religious communities and universities . This prominent politician was also the first to analyze the link that exists between democracy and civil society and resolved that the former benefits from any kind of social organization, since it opens the doors to citizen participation, as if it were a wall that would prevent the State from invading this space at will.
The German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas , acclaimed for his contributions to practical philosophy, claimed that democracy - without which the existence of a legitimate state is not possible - depended in part on a distinction between a political and a civil society. In his works it is possible to find the following two components of civil society:
* the institutions that defend and define the social, political and individual rights of the people and that allow them to associate freely, defend themselves from monopoly and other actions that violate their freedoms and intervene in the system itself ;
* Social movements that constantly bring new values and principles to the table, as well as demands from the people and control over the respect of their rights.
In the context of law , civil society is the contract established by two or more individuals, assuming the obligation to put certain resources in common for the creation of a legal entity that does not have an exclusively commercial nature, although it intends to generate a profit that, if obtained, it is divided between the parties.