The Concept of Civil Society and the Viability of a Global Civil Society
The Concept of Civil Society and the Viability of a Global Civil Society

Summary/Abstract: The contemporary processes of global transformations yield calls for structures to cope with changes in international society. This paper argues that the concept of civil society is an ambiguous concept which is differently understood by different authors and theories. These various interpretations, however, share common ideas about the civil society as an intermediate arena between the state, market and family. Civil society exists as a counterbalance to state power. The paper also argues that global civil society has emerged as a counterbalance to another layer of governance in a globalised era, which is the layer of supra-state governance. This essay will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the concept of global civil society in light of this statement. It will begin with a brief intellectual- historical, discussion of civil society. The second section will meet with this question and discuss the viability and the deficits in the concept of global civil society.

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