Advantages And Disadvantages Of Traditional Civil Society

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The ‘civil society’ term has been first used in 1990s by mostly Marxist scholars, and since then it became quite popular among the academics of social science. The cause of this interest for civil society is promoting democratic regime around the world. The Soviet Union’s collapse was a perfect opportunity for the United States of America and Europe countries to start their promotion of democracy. What they realized in the process that through democratization, the civil participation as an important key figure. Without the population’s support, the country’s regime change was at threat. Another reason these democratic countries did research about the civil society was the changes happening in their own countries. The separation of left and …show more content…

Traditional civil society is way more informally organized, and the groups use networks and follow rules which have been applied for a very long time. This type of society can be seen directly in the weak or failing states. Modern civil society is formal and organised; NGOs take great part in that. These two types are never strong at the same time, if the state is weak then traditional civil society is strong and modern civil society is weak. If the state is strong, then it means that modern civil society is strong and traditional civil society is weak. This is because the activities traditional civil society performs are considered to be the responsibilities of state in today’s world. That is why traditional civil society’s strong existence is a threat in the developing world. People who cannot find what they need from the government can turn to rich individuals, which will cause clientelism in the weak states. As a result those powerful people and the groups which flourish in the weak states will become obstacles and cause problems for the state’s …show more content…

Traditional civil society tries to adapt to the change or consolidation, modern civil society gains power and influence while the state’s systems change. The civil society may ignore what the state is doing, they may be opposed to them or they could try to influence their political system in the process. Avoiding the state is mostly seen in the weak states, since they do not possess a lot of control over the people living in the country. If the state is strong and repressive, then the civil society takes an antagonistic part against the state. Lastly, if the state is strong and fair to its citizens then the civil society and the state cooperate and work

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