Liberal notion of civil society
For liberals, each individual is directly linked to the state. According to them, civil society is the realm of non-profit organizations that run welfare, development and other altruistic activities. Civil society includes charities, social upliftment projects, environmental groups and issues of the same kind.
Civil society is engaged in law. Law practice is when civil society wants to change repressive laws from the government. For example, several human rights activists and women called for the repeal of anti-feminist Hudood laws published by military dictator General Zia ul Haq in Pakistan.
A prominent female lawyer, Asma Jehangir, was at the forefront of repealing these laws. Similarly, some young girls are married to the Koran. Civil society is in favor of abolishing such cruel customs. For liberals, Civil Society is independent of the public sector and market economy. They are in direct contact with the state.
During the Cold War, the anti-communist organizations were referred to as Civil Society. This was in the Jimmy Carter era after the Helsinki Awards. Civil society in this context was the groups that advocated the abolition of communism. Civil society wanted the repression of the communist economy to end.
However, as is the typical case in the social sciences, each term has different meanings in different situations. The above definition of Civil Society gained currency in the period after 1990. However, we shall turn our attention to the classical definition of civil society as defined by Hegel. Karl Marz and Antonio Gramsci.
Definition of political economy
Classical economists such as Adam Smith, John Stuart and Ricardo were moral philosophers. They concentrated more on the development of ethics and morality in society and the individual. Adam Smith's book Theory of Moral Sentiments is proof of this fact. In fact, they witnessed a change in the social structure of society. In Europe, feudalism gave way to a more progressive and emancipatory form of society in the form of capitalism. Although socialists detest any form of capitalism, capitalism in this case was a progressive, egalitarian and advanced form of society.
Command Economy
In Europe, feudalism was the widespread economic setup in the Middle Ages. In feudalism, there were properties where serfs could not escape the occupation they were engaged in. That was the term Gilds. No individual could adopt any other profession than in the Guild they were born in. Guilds had a monopoly on what they produced.
End feudalism and guilds in Europe
The estate (a piece of land) ordered the guilds to produce only one type of product. For example, if you had to buy a shirt, the buttons would only be produced by the buttons. The cloth had to be produced only from the manure. No one had the right to produce anything outside the kingdom's gold. If anyone did, the feudal lord would order the closure of the store that violates this law.
The social and economic system in Europe was feudalism. The feudal lord was everything in the whole state. No one could circumvent the order of the feudal lord. Adam Smith, John Stuart and Ricardo were ethical and moral philosophers. For them, economic progress was not the main goal, but they wanted the individual's freedom from this oppressive and totalitarian regime.
Feudalism in India
This was the caste system of the Indian subcontinent. In the village unit, each cast was meant to perform only the profession or vocation in which they were born. This meant that the son of a potter could only earn bread and butter by simply becoming a potter.
Family according to Hegel
According to Hegel, there are three domains to be considered. First is the family. In this unity, selflessness is the most important organizing force. Parents spend their money on their children. When parents grow old, children take care of them again. Although brothers and sisters have sour relationships, the organizing power is selfless. No brother or sister would want to be abused by his relative.
Market Economy
A person engages in market economy for selfish purposes. The consumer enters the market for selfish conditions, ie to buy the item at the lowest price. The seller wants to extract maximum profit from the transaction for selfish reasons, so he is also selfish. This is the market's organizing and contradictory nature. This principle is the mainstay of market conditions. According to Adam Smith, this is the invisible hand on the market that guides Civil Society.
Selflessness and selfishness
So for Hegel, there must be a balance between selflessness and selfishness. The social and market relations that are thus formed are Civil Society. The opposition of selflessness and selfishness is reconciled by the state. The state is authoritarian in that sense.
Civil society
Civil Society is divided into First Estate, Second estate and Third Estate.
Civil society consists of the individual who is then part of the property that forms the community. This community then relates to the state. This is the difference between the liberal and classical Hegelians. Liberals relate to the state individually while the Hegelians relate to the state through the estates. To further explain this concept, the individual is part of the property. This property is part of the community which is then linked to the state.
To shed further light on this point, the Civil Society is, according to Hegel, divided into three sections. First Estate people owned maximum property. The citizens of Second Estate owned less property and the inhabitants of Third Estate owned no property at all. However, they all paid taxes. Interestingly, the term Third Estate is incorrectly referred to as the third world.
Karl Marx (critique of Hegel)
Marx's view of civil society
Marx's writings are divided into two parts. The first part is known as the writings of the young Marx and after 1845 his writings are referred to as the writings of the mature Marx. Hegel argued that his concept of civil society was based on selfishness and selflessness. Marx argued that not only was Civil Society based on selfishness, but it was also the source of mass exploitation. This idea was promoted in Marx's writing The German Ideology . In this literary work, Marx argued that civil society was not only based on selfishness, but was also a source of exploitation of the landless.
Marx and English-communists
Marx and Engels became materialist economists. It was an epistemic break in the writings of Marx and Engels around 1845. Post The German ideology Marx declared himself a communist. Civil society exploits the poor who have been created by the Civil Society of Hegel. They have been created by the Civilian Society of Hegel, but they are still not part of the Civil Society. This was because the bourgeoisie did not have its own property. So they were not part of civil society, but they had been created by the Hegelian Civil Society.
It can easily be seen that the state that forms civil society and tries to resolve the contradictions of civil society is not everyone, but the state in a certain class as owned properties. This type of state is exploitative.
It is important to note here that the state in a Hegelian way created civil society. But Marx claimed that civil society created the state that exploited the unprofessional class.
Marx claimed that in 1848 many political revolutions took place. The French Revolution is a good example. These political revolutions democratized societies because of which parliaments were created. Unfortunately, the poor still could not earn much. This will be clear by an example. The state was democratized at the highest level, but the immersion effect of this process did not give the bourgeoisie authority.
In Pakistan, all citizens are equal before the law, but the rich still exploit the poor. Another example is that according to Pakistan's constitution, all minorities and majority citizens are equal to the state. But are they really equal? No. The rich and the poor are equal in the eyes of the Constitution, but are they really equal? No, absolutely not. Are women equal to men? Absolutely not. To cite an example from the West, blacks are really given their rights. So the state exploits even the poor, the landless and the poor.
Partial political revolutions
What bothered Marx was that the French Revolution and other revolutions established political economy. All citizens are politically equal, but this was a partial revolution. Economic exploitation was still present. So this contradiction had to be resolved.
Marx argued that the state had to be separated from civil society. The state will not discriminate on the basis of classes, but these classes still existed in Civil Society. To eliminate this class system, a revolution had to take place in civil society as well.
Alienation
This is a very important concept to understand. When a person creates something he likes, he likes it. But when his product is produced by many for profit, the individuality of the person is lost. For example, if a painter paints a picture as a work of art, creativity will be satisfied. It is an externalization of his creativity. So when that painting is painted by many people, the painter feels alienated from his work. His creation is no longer his product, but a profit object. Labor for production then becomes a painful process.
The profit motive of capitalism makes a man worthless. Instead of improving a man's character, the profit motive destroys a man's character. The Civil Society of Hegel discriminates on the basis of property (property). So property ownership should be abolished, and this can only be done by the proletariat, which is a product of civil society, but not part of it. In essence, Marx is in favor of a certain degree.
Gramsci
Gramsci Civil Society
Gramsci is of the opinion that the state maintains various institutions such as the police, the judiciary and so on. Gramsci claims that the Civil Society protects the state. This idea is the opposite of that of Marx where the Civil Society attacks the state. In Gramsci's time, the state was fascist.
According to Gramsci, the Civil Society is a battleground for different ideas. The dominant idea is the idea that has ideological hegemony. Gramsci says that in addition to political and economic revolutions, there should also be a cultural revolution.
Many parts of civil society want to maintain the status quo, while some groups are advocating for different ideas. They try to convince the former groups that they should bring about a change in their narrative. These groups continue to change positions, and there are no hard and fast rules for these groups.
Gramsci was of the opinion that different groups should form a bloc, keep their minor differences at the back, to attack the fascist regime. Gramsci's ideas of counter-hegemony and a new idea of the Cultural Revolution were really powerful ideas. Taking a queue from Gramsci's ideas, feminist movements, environment, etc. In the late sixties sprouted and gained momentum.
Conclusion of Three Great Minds on Civil Society
First, we discussed the liberal notion of civil society. The public sector and the market are different spheres. Civil society is the third independent sphere and consists of voluntary organizations that come together to achieve a goal. This sphere consists of voluntary organizations and such organizations. Law practice is the highest task of civil society. They try to reject unjust and oppressive laws or causes. In its entirety, this is Liberal onion from the Civil Society.
For Hegel, Civil Society is a set of social practices between the family and the state governed by the invisible hand of the market. Selflessness and selfishness are balanced by the state. Civil Society consists of First Estate, Second Estate and the landless third state. Democratization of the public sector creates only partial revolutions such as the French Revolution and other political revolutions. However, discrimination of the third property is still there, since they have no property. So Marx demands a complete revolution carried out by the proletariat which is possible only through violence.
In this conclusion, the view of Antonio Gramsci is presented. In a twist from either Hegel and Marx, Gramsci regarded civil society as part of the state. Its function was to build ruling class hegemony in ideas. But civil society was also a battleground where counter-hegemonic forces could form a historical bloc to create a political, economic and, most importantly, a cultural revolution. All such revolutions would remove the fascist regime.