Introduction

Civil society is the "aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that

manifest interests and will of citizens".Civil society includes the family and the private
sphere, referred to as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and
business.By other authors, "civil society" is used in the sense of the aggregate of non-
governmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens or
individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government.

Sometimes the term civil society is used in the more general sense of "the elements such as
freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, etc, that make up a democratic society"
(Collins English Dictionary).Especially in the discussions among thinkers of Eastern and
Central Europe, civil society is seen also as a concept of civic values. One widely known
representative of this concept is the Polish former dissident Adam Michnik

What Is Civil Society?

Initially, Civil Society used to be defined as a political community i.e. a society governed by
the government, law and authority. In contemporary times, however, Civil Society is
distinguished from the state and political community. It means nongovernmental, private,
voluntarily organized associations or institutions of the people, through which they try to
secure their needs, desires and objectives.

Such associations and organisations work independently of the government. Civil Society
even opposes the wrong politics, decisions and projects of the government. In doing so the
civil society depends upon constitutional, peaceful and legal method of action.

Meaning and Definition:

The term Civil Society is used to collectively refer to the voluntary organizations corporate
bodies, socially active groups, and firms working in each society.

"Civil Society is the set of intermediate associations which is neither the state nor the family,
but which plays an active and positive role in social, economic, and cultural activities."

According to Andrew Heywood, "Civil society refers to "a realm of associations, business,
interest groups, classes’ families and so on."

Civil Society includes all private organizations of the people. Press, professional associations
of the people, Human Right groups and organizations, voluntary social service organizations,
and in fact, all NGOs working in society.
In other words, Civil Society refers to the effective presence of non- governmental
autonomous groups and associations, business groups, interest groups, trade unions,
voluntary social service organizations, in fact, all non-governmental organizations, and
groups working for securing public interests and welfare by their self efforts.

Features of Civil Society:

1. Civil Society consists of non-governmental, voluntarily organized associations,
organizations and institutions of the people.

2. Civil Society is different from both the State and Society.

3. Civil Society is, however, neither opposed to state nor to society. On the contrary it works
as a supplementary to each of the two. It, however, works in an organized and autonomous
way.

4. A healthy and efficient democratic system needs and integrates civil society, society and
state.

5. Civil Society is constituted by the well-organised and active presence of a number of

social, economic and cultural associations and groups of the people.

6. Both Liberalism and Marxism accept and advocate the role of Civil Society but each
conceptualizes it in a different way.

Role of Civil Society:

1. Civil Society as an instrument for securing rights and interests of the people:

Civil Society works for discharging several economic, social, cultural, moral and other
responsibilities which fall in the domain of private activities. It is not a part of government
and yet it serves the purpose of securing the rights, general welfare and development of all
the people of the state.

2. Growing strength and Role of Civil Society in our Country:

In our country the Civil Society has been becoming more and more aware, alert and active.
The continuous presence and successful working of Indian liberal democratic political
system, the spread of literacy, the freedom of mass media, the existence of a very broad
based decentralized local self-government system, the presence of a direct, homogeneous
and democratic process of Political Socialization and people's full commitment to liberal
democracy have been together helping the Civil Society to become increasingly active and
strong.

The Right to Information and the implementation of the Right to Information Act has given
an additional strength to the Civil Society. It now uses this Act for securing its objectives; It
has now come to be a powerful actor in the process of Indian democratic polity, economy
and society. Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement and the movement for the creation of
a strong Lokpal as the watchdog against corruption has shown the increasing strength and
role Civil society in our country.

3. Need of Civil Society in undemocratic states:

Civil Society is needed even in an authoritarian system because it can help the process of
overthrow of the authoritarian regime and replace it with a democratic system. The Civil
Society, particularly the Bar Association of Pakistan, played a key role in 2008 to compel
General Parvez Musharraf to accept the demand for holding democratic and free elections
for constituting a democratic government capable of developing Pakistan as a democratic
state and society.

Since March 2008, Pakistan has been living with a democratic government and this
development has been helping the Civil Society in Pakistan to become better organized and
more active and efficient in playing its role in Pakistani society, economy and polity. It alone
can help the Pakistani government in controlling the menace of terrorism.

Presently, (February 2011) several states of Africa, particularly Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and
some others have been experiencing the increasing strengths of their civil societies. Strong
opposition to authoritarian and dictatorial regimes is being demonstrated by the civil society
in Egypt.

The civil society of Tunisia successfully secured its objective of overthrowing the forces of
authoritarianism in their country and on 11thFebruary 2011, the Egyptian Civil Society also
successfully secured its objective of eliminating the authoritarian regime of Hosne Mubarak
in their country. It is expected that it will now ensure the installation of a democratic regime
in the country.

In fact, the civil society of each state has been trying to become more active and assertive in
its society, polity and economy. It is indeed a very healthy development which is destined to
give more strength to the movements for the restoration of democratic regimes in all
authoritarian states of the world.

The current drive for the protection of Human Rights of all the people living in all parts of
the globe and the environment protection movements will get more and more support and
efforts from the CIVIL SOCIETY of each member of the international community.
The Importance of Civil Societies
Civil society organizations engage in advocating the public’s rights and wishes of the people,
including but not limited to health, environment and economic rights. They fulfill important
duties of checks and balances in democracies, they are able to influence the government
and hold it accountable. Therefore, free and active civil societies are an indicator of a
healthy participatory democracy.
However, they can only function where freedom of speech and right of free assembly are
guaranteed. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many countries around the world. In the
Middle East too we have witnessed growing restrictions on civil societies.

To stand up for civil societies worldwide our Berlin headquarters are launching the Global
Perspective Conference on “The Future of Civil Spaces” with over 160 international
participants. In coordination with the conference the Heinrich Böll Foundation also launched
the Civic Charter which is the global framework for people’s participation and aims to
protect civil societies. The charter calls on governments to guarantee and protect civil
societies. The co- president of our foundation, Barbara Unmüßig, co-drafted the charter.

Civil Society in Bangladesh

Civil Society may not be confused conceptually with civil rights. There was civil rights
movement during Pakistan period, even during the colonial period. Democratic aspirations
have been traditionally expressed and organised on the bedrock of civil rights. As a concept,
civil society was first visualized by W. Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) who gave a new thought
to civil right what he termed as 'civil society' and by which he meant a socialist society which
was to replace the state bourgeoisie through the dialectic processes of thesis, antithesis and
synthesis. After the Second World War, the term 'civil society' obtained a new meaning. It
was then aspired to be a society self governed and least interfered by government. The civil
society does not have any universally accepted definition except a universal consensus that
it is a voluntary association free from state control. It is believed that autonomously run
associations of people can achieve greater good than by state centralism.

In Bangladesh the civil society movement got momentum from 1975 when government
allowed many foreign NGOs to operate in Bangladesh. The foreign NGOs led to the rise of a
number of local NGOs which got organisationally involved with the national NGOs, and in
turn formed a central association called Association of Development Agencies of Bangladesh
(ADAB).

Civil society claims to play principal role in contributing to the creation of a healthy public
life free from unwarranted government control. Bangladesh civil society activists are trying
to make a network of autonomous associations of rights-bearing and responsibility-laden
citizens created voluntarily to address common problems, advance shared interests, and
promote collective aspirations. Civil society claims to participate alongside state and market
institutions in the shaping and implementing public policies designed to resolve collective
problems and promote public good.

NGOs are perfect examples of civil society associations in Bangladesh. The ideal of civil
society is to participate in the development and sustainance of public welfare either
independently or in collaboration with the government. Seeking government cooperation is
a local reality. In Bangladesh, external and local resources are directly or indirectly
controlled by government, and hence official cooperation is looked at by civil society in
Bangladesh as a basic necessity, a feature that goes counter to the spirit of world civil
society movement.

Thanks to the new world order and communication revolution, the civil society is now a
globalised movement. It is a world movement for people to people contact and
cooperation. Its networking now runs from the local association to the global ones. Political
scientists believe that Bangladesh civil society does not share much of the spirit of the global
civil society in the sense that many civil society associations in Bangladesh are seen to have
been playing political role in collaboration with one or another national political parties. In
spite of this weakness, Bangladesh civil society is playing important role in promoting the
rights and welfare of the people.

Conclusion
The need to build and strengthen the Civil Society has come to be common theme with all
contemporary thinkers, reformers and commentators. Each democratic state fully accepts
the need and necessity of Civil Society for a successful working of its democratic
government. It can compel the government to continuously work as a representative,
responsible, transparent and accountable government of the people.
 References

1.Definition of Civil Society. Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society

2.About Civil Society. Retrieved from:

http://www.preservearticles.com/2014051433460/civil-society-meaning-features-and-role-
of-civil-society.html

3.Civil society in Bangladesh. Retrieved from:

http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Civil_Society
 Contents

1.Introduction

2.What is Civil Society?

3.Meaning and Definition

4.Features of Civil Society

5.Role of Civil Society

6.The importance of Civil Society

7.Civil Society in Bangladesh

8.Conclusion
 Assignment

On

“Civil Society”

Course Title: Introduction to Political Science

Course Code: UGE-206

Submitted to:

Fakhrul Islam

Assistant Professor

Department of Public Administration

Shahjalal University of Science and Technology,Sylhet

Submitted by:

“The Green Valley”

Name ID
Sayeda Farin 1713030051
SM. Nadim Mahmud 1713030055
Ripan Das 1713030057
Jannatul Ferdous Nipu 1713030065

Department: English

Batch: 45th

Semester: 4th

Section: B

Date of Submission: 20th March,2018