Why is it necessary to have vibrant civil society?

To begin with, it is imperative to understand that civil society is a highly contested concept that is open to
a myriad of definitions. Some scholars define it in terms of values and norms, as a collective noun, a
space for action, and an antidote to the state. I concur with Van Rooy though when he argued that at
conceptual level, civil society is to be a historically bound concept that varies from one society to another.
As used in development circles, civil society encompasses a larger population beyond relief NGOs,
including groups such as social movement agents, human rights organizations and advocacy groups.

According to Habib (2003) civil society is the organized expression of various interests and values
operating in the triangular space between the family, state, and the market. This definition conceptualizes
civil society as an entity distinct from both the market and the state. Of course traditional Hegelian
definitions of the term include the market. . For Cohen and Arato, the actors of what they call political
and economic society control and manage state power and economic production and this imparts to them
a different strategic purpose and function from civil society actors. In their words, political and economic
actors cannot subordinate (their) strategic and instrumental criteria to the patterns of normative integration
and open-ended communication characteristic of civil society. This then makes it essential for civil
society to be analytically distinguished from both a political society of parties, political organizations, and
political publics (in particular, parliaments) and an economic society composed of organizations of
production and distribution, usually firms, cooperatives.

This is not to say there aren’t other definitions or alternative conceptualization of the term. On the
contrary, Kirty Ranchod, for example used a different definition of what is to be referred to as civil
society in her study, she argued that civil society should be referred to the arena of un coerced 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 groups. This definition basically refers to civil society as all collective voluntary
action outside the family, state and the market (business). According to Thomson (2004:5), civil society
can be defined as ‘[t]he organisations that arise out of the voluntary association within society, found
between the extended family and the state.

Civil society play a huge role more generally in society, in monitoring government performance, the
services that citizens are supposed to be getting. Moreover it plays huge role in political participation
because democracy cannot succed unless the citizens come to political proceeses. It doesn’t mean only
vote but also coming to political parties or other groups engaged with poitical parties. So we can say that
these people are mobilized by civil society and make them to become political and also make the parties
democratic internally by accounatabiliy. So with all these, democracy becomes more vibrant,
participatory and responsive.

We can say that more political consciousness could lead to open budgeting and more accountabliliy and
also intelligible and accessible to ordinary people by websites.
How is globalization transforming the role of civil society?

Civil society is a community of citizens who are organized in pursuit of their common interests outside
the state. It’s independent (i.e. not controlled by state) mass media, trade unions, fan clubs, rifle
associations, political parties, environmentalist groups, gay pride organizers, faith congregations,
neighborhood watches, online communities and suchlike.

The state has long been the main, dominant form of social organization. Before the state came around, the
social organization had been going along the lines of familial kinship. In totalitarian societies, the state
tends to supplant, or fully control through party cells and secret operatives all others organizations.

The modern civil society is a baby of middle classes. They need a tight network of interest groups to
enforce and maintain the principles of liberal democracy. It’s their only guarantee for protection from bad
government and powerful oligarchical groups, on the one side, and against legislated or violent
confiscation of their assets by less privileged classes, on the other side.

There’s a measure of how strong is the civil society in a particular country. Look at the number, variety,
penetration and combined financial power of non-governmental organizations. The stronger they are, the
more deeply entrenched is the civil society.

The defining trait of any state is its monopoly on (1) violence and (2) collecting taxes. Therefore, the
strength of modern civil society may be measured by the access of citizens to firearms. The balance
between the state-managed system of social security and private health care, education and retirement
funds can also tell a lot about the strength of civil society.

From 1980 we have observed that non governmental organizations have played an indespensible role in
the on world stage. It has contributed to democratization like protecting human rights, and providing
services to all the people. Now recently the role of NGOs is not confined to any national level or state
level but international level. These international institutions have played great role in globalization . NGO
are new to the globalized world.

Most of the people believe that institutions have not played the role which has been assigned to them by
international community. There is freedom and power but without any commensurate responsibility.