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The impact of civic engagement in society
Traditional society vs modern society
Traditional society vs modern 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
Throughout a series of books, and now movies known as Divergent they hit a lot of points as to what is believed as a “good society”. In the series, Divergent all must conform and fall into a certain category Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Candor, or Amity . If one fails to do so, and falls into all of the categories they are known as “Divergent," and must be killed for failing to conform to traditional society standards and rules. This relates to Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, because he talks about humans not needing a form of structure set by a hierarchy, such as a government. A good society according to Thoreau, is one with little to no government involvement, one that respects laws to a certain extent, and one that follows
Society constantly changing rules and culture is the main reason for conflict between people. This is displayed in “Kindred” were numerous African descending people are enslaved. In the novel Rufus and Dana -the main characters- have a difficult time getting along. This is because they were raised in different societies with different cultural acceptance. In the novel, you can observe Dana struggles with trying to fit in and stay out of trouble, and Rufus frustration in trying to control her. As seen in this novel, the thing people are taught or use to often time interfere with their good judgment and can make overlook things that are morally wrong.
Civil Disobedience occurs when an individual or group of people are in violation of the law rather than a refusal of the system as a whole. There is evidence of civil disobedience dating back to the era after Jesus was born. Jesus followers broke the laws that went against their faith. An example of this is in Acts 4:19-20,”God told the church to preach the gospel, so they defied orders to keep quiet about Jesus,” In my opinion civil disobedience will always be needed in the world. The ability to identify with yourself and knowing right from wrong helps to explain my opinion. Often in society when civil
An individual’s role in society can vary with the number themes the characters exhibit. When there are signs of fate, cruelties, weaknesses, and desires for justice and catharsis the role of an individual becomes more complicated. In Antigone, most of those themes are shown thus a single person’s influence or role on society is very small and complicated to attain. However in The Lottery the society has most of the control and there is not many signs of those characteristics so the role of a person is simplified because they are nothing compared to the society combined. Finally, in The Penalty of Death, there are signs of many of the themes but since it is the societies influence against that of an individuals, it is simplified because they have to work together.
An actual definition for civil religion is the worship of a form of government and the political principles associated with it. Civil religion has much in common with the traditional world religions such as a set of highly held beliefs and ideals. In the United States this includes the worship of democracy and republican government rooted in principles such as liberty, equality, equal rights, union, limited government, and due process of law. The latest stream of faith includes multicultural diversity and communitarianism (the “It takes a village to raise a child” mentality).
These two ideologies provide some important building blocks for an ideal political ideology. Aspects from philosophies could be taken to create an innovative and new model that could govern the world. Presently however, there isn’t a political ideology that the world should aspire to. Factors within each state also make it difficult to conform to one as this can cause conflict. “There is no perfect ideology” (Burt, 2014) rather systems and beliefs that have evolved throughout time to their present day shape.
Private good prevails over public good, as people tend to act in their self-interest. They want what they think will propel their life forward. Private good only gives us a temporary pleasure that influences us to want more. On the other hand, public good generates a sense of contentment to the individual, which can spread to the rest of society. Ideally, public good should be more pursued for an individual to embrace a good life as it encompasses happiness that private good cannot produce. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” demonstrate how people make choices for their own benefit, one where a family’s privacy is violated and the other where bribery reigns. Both readings also illustrate that interest in the public good would help maintain a good life and the outcome of the choices would be favorable to the majority.
Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to obey certain laws or government demands in attempt to influence legislation or government policy. This act of disobedience is performed by people who are brave enough to stand up for what they believe in no matter what the punishment is.
“The only way to identify the requirements of justice is to see how each particular community understands the value of social goods”(Kymlicka 211). This is the approach to justice from the communitarian. Communitarianism in the last few decades has sparked in popularity among political philosophers. Communitarians believe that political theories, such as classic liberalism, leaves out the importance and significance of the community. The communitarian respects and upholds social practices and traditions as a way of governing, and as a way of justice. Because of the importance of the cultural aspect, this political current is thought of as a cultural relativist approach to justice. The communitarian does not accept the notion of being able to detach the self from roles of society. While communitarianism shows a great respect for cultural practices and tradition, it is an incomplete theory on the notion of being able to protect individual citizens from social institutions, like the community itself.
This chapter began by introducing the concept of a civil society. Chirico (128) described it as people organising outside of government channels to meet social objectives. She pointed out that social movements in the past have focused on communities within nations while the current movements focus more on involving people from diverse parts of the world in order to promote human welfare regardless of where in the World they happen to be. Chirico shared a quote from Simmel (128) that really resonated with me and, in my opinion, captured such a complex concept into a short and simple sentence. He said that “Humanity is the collective life, the same people who from other perspective are organized into societies, polities economies, families, and so on”. I take this to mean that we are all, basically, the same; we are all humans who are trying to make it through whatever life we have been given to live. People are just people. I think the concept of civil society is one that I wish more people would understand and embrace instead of holding on to prejudice, judgement, and ignorance. According to Chirico (128), individuals who help do so out of a sense of shared experience by recognising that everyone is a victim of global problems and that anyone can help. There are endless ways to participate whether it be through a formal organisation such as NGO’s, The Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and The Peace Corps, through non-profit organisations and advocacy, or more individually by making donations, sponsoring a child, mentoring, volunteering in their communities. These are regular people who volunteer, and sometimes risk their lives, to fight for equal rights and treatment for all.
The question, “ What makes a good society” is never the same for every individual that comes across trying to answer this sociological question. What may work in one society, may not work in another. But I am guessing you already new that. Depending on the type of culture, location and era; a good society can be anything. If you were to have been raised in the western side of the world, your good society is one of a democracy. Where the people have power and we have checks and balances in our government. But what if you were raised in the east, were people live in a socialist-communistic society. Where the government has the power and people are treated equally. Who is to say which type of society is “good”?
During the Renaissance, florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni translated Aristoteles' concept as “societas civilis” in Latin. The term was later translated in English as civil society. In the last decade of the sixteenth century, the term civil society was referred to people living in a community.
“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government”. Here Milton Friedman, American economist and a famous writer share his views about the society or government who is responsible for the protection of the people. Most of the people in this world are familiar with the word society. The term society describes a group of people as the members of certain communities for several events. We live in a society and without society we cannot develop our own individual behavior. In other words an ideal society can also be known as a perfect society which can provide basic needs to the people living within their respected communities. Different types of societies prevail in this world today. Some are religious, cultural, charitable, professional as well as economic. But there are advantages and disadvantages to these societies. For instance, being in a society will increase teamwork, cooperation, open to anyone, regardless of race, sex, religion and it is easy to form. On the other hand, it will limit your ability of working individually, problems arise when some families in the community fail to contribute money and the lack of secrecy since almost every matter is discussed openly in meetings. Authors such as Milton Friedman and Jane Jacobs describes about societies in detail and how it should be through their famous books, free to choose and the death and life of great American cities.
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations and private individuals, and which ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society and state without discrimination or repression.
The Role of Community in Society Communities are an essential part of our society, because we all depend and interact with each other. Communities are groups of people that help an individual to learn and develop new ideas. A society is where people’s relations with each other are direct and personal and where a complex web of ties link people in mutual bonds of emotion and obligation. The idea of community has provided a model to contrast to the emergence of more modern less personal societies where cultural, economic and technological transformations have uprooted tradition and where complexity has created a less personal and more rationalized and goal directed social life.