Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

367Civil Society and the Political Public Spherecomponent of the lifeworld. Civil society is composed of thosemore or less spontaneously emergent associations, organizations,and movements that, attuned to how societal problems resonate inthe private life spheres, distill and transmit such reactions inamplified form to the public sphere. The core of civil societycomprises a network of associations that institutionalizes problemsolvingdiscourses on questions of general interest inside theframework of organized public spheres.53 These "discursive designs"have an egalitarian, open form of organization that mirrorsessential features of the kind of communication around which theycrystallize and to which they lend continuity and permanence.54Such associations certainly do not represent the most conspicu- 1ous element of a public sphere dominated by mass media and large/agencies, observed by market and opinion research, and inun-idated by the public relations work, propaganda, and advertising ofpolitical parties and groups. All the same, they do form theorganizational substratum of the general public of citizens. Moreor less emerging from the private sphere, this public is made ofcitizens who seek acceptable interpretations for their social interestsand experiences and who want to have an influence oninstitutionalized opinion- and will-formation.One searches the literature in vain for clear definitions of civilsociety that would go beyond such descriptive characterizations. 55S. N. Eisenstadt's usage reveals a certain continuity with the oldertheory of pluralism when he describes civil society as follows:Civil society embraces a multiplicity of ostensibly "private" yet potentiallyautonomous public arenas distinct from the state. The activities of suchactors are regulated by various associations existing within them, preventingthe society from degenerating into a shapeless mass. In a civil society,these sectors are not embedded in closed, ascriptive or corporate settings;they are open-ended and overlapping. Each has autonomous access tothe central political arena, and a certain degree of commitment to thatsetting.";Jean Cohen and Andrew Arato, who have presented the mostcomprehensive study on this topic, provide a catalog of featurescharacterizing the civil society that is demarcated from the state,the economy, and other functional systems but coupled with thecore private spheres of the lifeworld: