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Civil Society
The term civil society refers to a variety of uncoerced voluntary associations that publically promote a broad range of shared interests, purposes, and values. Although these necessarily include some self-interested goals, the trope of civil society presupposes that the citizens form such associations out of a collective desire to improve the communities to which they belong. Such associations vary in terms of the formality of institutional structure, the influence they can command in the public sphere, and the degree to which they are fully autonomous from more integrated civic institutions, such as the government or the corporate world.
The term civil society is a false friend to the social sciences in that it has come to mean all good things to all people, even when competing ...
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