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Civil Society Vs State Power

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Civil society has been increasingly becoming the third quintessential actor in the process as well as the discourse of development. The neoliberal paradigm influencing the realms of governance and related factors such as higher degree of participatory civic culture has unravelled a never before emphasis on Civil Society and has been constantly redefining its relevance and actions. The civil society is now in the process of being reinvented so as to envisage itself as the space for the expression of voice of the previously exploited and excluded sections of the society including women, dalits and low castes, peasants, farmers, forest dwellers, and tribals, thereby avoiding to become the preserve of only white, upper caste male, and property- …show more content…

The question arises that if the civil society is an arena of procuring legitimacy of the state power through ideological and cultural domination over the individual, then what space is intended for the individual to exercise their freedom of expression and their right to resist the arbitrary power by the institutions of the state or is there no space for the individual to act independently without being influenced by the state. But is it possible for a state to continue its authoritarian activities for a long time keeping the individuals away from the framework of its power? Can the civil society be successful all time to keep the state in the protective shield and hide its actual authoritarian nature from the individuals? Why is civil society supposed to play such role of bulwark for the state against the individuals? Does it imply that individuals are devoid of reason, intelligence and critical thinking, so being unable to recognise and veto the authoritarian nature of the state? It is still quite doubtful that whether Gramsci’s …show more content…

This dilemma becomes critical with the emergence of the modern state characterised by differentiations of structures and specialisation of functions. This modern state is accommodating a wide range of voluntary and autonomous institutions like trade unions, business groups, churches, clubs, peer groups, etc thereby raising a hope for the strengthening of the roots of democracy in the society. Can we regard all these associations as the constitutive parts of the civil society and can we be sure that the expansion of these associations would help in democratising the society and the state? Though there has been a consensus among the political thinkers and intellectuals that various movements preoccupied with numerous right based issues and the voluntary associations independent of the control and influence of the state constitute civil society, they fail to delineate the civil society from the others which remain outside the purview of the civil society itself. An exception to those who tended to equate civil society with the collection of all voluntary associations existing in the society, Gurpreet in her article “civil society and Its Avatars” become quite successful in demarcating civil society from other voluntary associations by identifying the role of the civil

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