Volume IV, Issue II (April 2006) - Columbus School of Law

‘a bewildering array of the good, the bad, and the outright bizarre.’ 7 Indeed, as pointed out byThomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, civil society includeseveryone from the Russian mafia and militia groups from Montana to a local parent-teacherassociation. 8 Although ‘ some civil society groups may stand for “higher” – that is, non-material– principles and values, … much of civil society is preoccupied with the pursuit of private andfrequently parochial and grubby ends.’ 9On the brighter side, of course, civil society does include those groups which are struggling tocreate balance against the strong arm of the state, to achieve or maintain democracy, andotherwise to improve the quality of life for citizens within a given state or even globally. Asoptimistically described by another scholar of civil society and democracy, Larry Diamond, civilsocietyinvolves citizens acting collectively in a public sphere to express their interests,passions, and ideas, exchange information, achieve mutual goals, make demands on thestate, and hold state officials accountable. … Civil society encompasses “the ideologicalmarketplace” and the flow of information and ideas … [including] institutions belongingto the broader field of autonomous cultural and intellectual activity – universities, thinktanks, publishing houses, theaters, film production companies, and artistic networks. 10In fact, Diamond disagrees with the definition of civil society as ‘some mere residual category,synonymous with … everything that is not the state,’ 11 and he instead characterizes civil societymore heroically as having the following inherent qualities:(1) Civil society concerns itself ‘with public rather than private ends,’ distinguishing it fromother social groups, including political parties which might seek state power; 12(2) Civil society ‘relates to the state in some way but does not aim to win formal power oroffice in the state:’ instead, ‘civil society organizations seek from the state concessions, benefits,policy changes, relief, redress, or accountability’ and do not desire to ‘capture state power for thegroup per se;’ 13(3) Civil society ‘encompasses pluralism and diversity:’ in fact, Diamond goes so far as toassert that, ‘[t]o the extent that an organization – such as a religious fundamentalist, ethnicchauvinist, revolutionary, or millenarian movement – seeks to monopolize a functional orpolitical space in society, claiming that it represents the only legitimate path, it contradicts thepluralistic and market-oriented nature of civil society;’ 14 and(4) Civil society is distinguished by its ‘partialness,’ such that ‘no group in civil societyseeks to represent the whole of a person’s or community’s interests. Rather, different groupsrepresent different interests.’ 157 Carothers, above n 2, 20.8 Ibid.9 Ibid 21.10 Larry Diamond, ‘Toward Democratic Consolidation’ in Larry Diamond and Mark F. Plattner (eds), TheGlobal Resurgence of Democracy (1996) 228-229.11 Ibid 229.12 Ibid.13 Ibid.14 Ibid 229-230.15 Ibid 230.9