Civil Society and Government

Nancy L. Rosenblum, Robert C. Post, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Robert C. Post

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780691088020, 9780691088013
• eBook ISBN: 9780691228396
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

Civil Society and Government brings together an unprecedented array of political, ethical, and religious perspectives to shed light on the complex and much-debated relationship between civil society and the state. Some argue that civil society is a bulwark against government; others see it as an indispensable support for government. Civil society has been portrayed both as a independent of the state and as dependent upon it. This book reveals the extraordinary diversity of views on the subject by examining how civil society has been treated in classical liberalism, liberal egalitarianism, critical theory, feminism, natural law, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Confucianism.


The volume draws on the work of eminent scholars to address six questions: In terms of function and consequences, does it matter where the line is drawn between civil society and the state? What is the relationship of civil society to the state? In what contexts and under what conditions should government interact with individuals directly or instead indirectly through communal associations? What are the prerogatives and duties of citizenship, and what is the role of civil society in forming good citizens? How should a society handle the conflicts that sometimes arise between the demands of citizenship and those of membership in the non-governmental associations of civil society?


A theoretical introduction by the editors--political theorist Nancy Rosenblum and legal scholar Robert Post--and a conclusion by religious ethicist Richard Miller, tie the book together. In addition to Rosenblum, the contributors are Kenneth Baynes, David Biale, John Coleman, Farhad Kazemi, John Kelsay, William Galston, Will Kymlicka, Tom Palmer, Fred Miller, Susan Moller Okin, Peter Nosco, Henry Rosemont, Steven Scalet, David Schmidtz, William Sullivan, Max Stackhouse, Stephen White, and Noam Zohar.

INDEX

Adorno, Theodor, 123, 146–49

ahadith: duties to obey ruler, 295, 305; recommending disobedience, 295

Anabaptism, 242

Aquinas, Thomas, 188, 199, 203, 220, 225, 228

Arato, Andrew, 125

Arendt, Hannah, 15, 161

Aristotle, 188, 191, 193, 196, 202, 203, 206–7, 376

associations: as components of society, 199; covered by civil society, 298; in development of civil society, 50–56; eleemosynary, 200; excluding women, 182–83; nature-based norms of civil, 192–93; purposes of, 4–5; role in governance, 16–17; variety in civil society of, 195; of women, 173

associations, voluntary: in ancient China, 363; in civil society, 3–4, 334; in medieval Jewish community, 270, 281; rise in East Asia, 340–41

Augustine, 225

authoritarianism, in Islamic world, 320–22

Barber, Benjamin, 49–50, 56, 61

Barry, Brian, 68, 112

Bauer, Otto, 67

Bellah, Robert, 247

Benhabib, Seyla, 235, 236

Bennett, John C., 230

Berlin, Isaiah, 3–4

Berman, Harold, 51–52

Black, Antony, 53

boundaries: between civil society and government, 3, 10–12; between civil society/state in Christian thought, 243–45; between civil society/state in critical theory, 129–33; between civil society/ state in liberal-egalitarian thought, 81–84, 115–17; between civil society/state in natural law perspective, 193–95; in feminist theory, 152–55, 179–81; liberal view of government and society, 30–32, 61–62; between public and private spheres, 179–80; between society and state in Islamic thought, 294–97; between society/state in Judaic perspective, 266–69; between state and society in Confucian thought, 337–41, 362–63, 371–73

Boyt, Harry, 170

Brogan, D. W., 246

Burrell, David, 225

Butler, Judith, 166

Calvinism, 229–30, 242–43

capitalism: criticized by Frankfurt School, 146; natural law view in support of, 201–2; suspicions about, 201

Casanova, Jose, 232, 234–35

casuistry, 189, 202

Catholicism: deprivatization of religion in, 236–37; distinction between state and society in, 233–38; feminist aspirations in, 182; natural law arguments of, 216; sense of its mission, 233–42; social, 226, 231–34, 236–47, 377, 378, 393–94; social thought of, 237, 239–40; subsidiarity principle of, 238–43; theory of church-state, 231–33; theory of subsidiarity and common good, 223; views about church,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• State, Civil Society, and Classical Liberalism
• Classical Liberalism and Civil Society: Definitions, History, and Relations
• Civil Society and Government: A Liberal-Egalitarian Perspective
• Liberal Egalitarianism: A Family of Theories, Not a Single View
• A Critical Theory Perspective on Civil Society and the State
• Skeptics at the Celebration: Civil Society and the Early Frankfurt School
• Feminist Perspectives on Civil Society and Government
• Comment on Nancy Rosenblum’s “Feminist Perspectives on
• Natural Law, Civil Society, and Government
• Natural Law: A Response
• A Limited State and a Vibrant Society: Christianity and Civil Society
• Christianity, Civil Society, and the State: A Protestant Response
• Civil Society and Government: Seeking Judaic Insights
• Response to Noam Zohar
• Civil Society and Government in Islam
• Perspectives on Islam and Civil Society
• Confucian Perspectives on Civil Society and Government
• Commentary and Addenda on Nosco’s “Confucian Perspectives on Civil Society and Government”
• Overview: The Virtues and Vices of Civil Society
• Contributors
• Index