Basis Of Civil Society Research Articles

THE CONCEPT OF THE MODERN FAMILY AS CONSTANTS OF CIVIL SOCIETY

The article deals with the conceptual aspects of the relationship of the family, civil society and the State. Development of a family paradigm in the context of requirement of formation of civil society – very significant research task. In spite of extensive material on a perspective of a family and civil society, the place of institute of a family in self-organization of civil society still didn’t become a subject of special research. Purpose: to investigate a role and a place of institute of a family in self-organization of civil society and to offer scientific justification of «a family paradigm» as social base of the self-organizing civil society. Method and methodology of carrying out work: the theoretical analysis of scientific li-terature on a perspective of a family and civil society. Results: In article is defended the concept about an immanent associativity of two social elements of society: family and civil society. The proof historical conditionality of their parallel development furnishes the methodological clue to development of a paradigm of a family in the context of formation of civil society. It is proved on big factual material that the family historically was a basis of civil society that is confirmed by researches of authors of non-classical and post-non-classical literature. The second aspect of the raised problem concerns identification of essence of civil society, in particular, of that model which gradually develops in the Russian society. The conclusion that to modern conditions of Russia there doesn’t correspond the former model is drawn and it is necessary to create a new paradigm of civil society. Developing the scientific concept of a family paradigm, in article the analysis of a condition of this institute becomes, there are given basic characteristics, which have to be its basis, the role of the state in this process is updating. The main conclusion consists that the put-forward recommendations following from qualitative parameters of the offered family model have important practical value. In the conditions of change of economic base of society, the vector of the Russian transformations has to define a role of institute of a family as the main social base of civil society.

Social Networks, Civil Society, Democracy and Rule of Law: A New Conceptual Framework

Although social networks exist in every society, they are widely believed to play a different and more prominent role in Asian societies, especially those with a Confucian heritage, than in Western states, particularly Western states with mature capitalist economies, liberal democratic political systems with robust civil societies, and well developed legal systems characterized by rule of law and a modern bureaucratic administrative system. This chapter article examines the role of social networks along two dimensions: political reform and the implementation and consolidation of democracy; and legal reforms aimed at establishing rule of law and a modern technocratic administrative system. Clearly there are wide variations in the nature and role of social networks in Asia, which is to be expected given the wide diversity in Asian societies in terms of religious and cultural practices, political systems, levels of economic development and legal systems. Rather than attempting a broad comparison of social networks throughout Asia, my main focus will be on China, with reference to the experiences of other countries where relevant. In some Western states such as Poland and other former Soviet Union republics, social groups in the form of civil society played a central role in the transition to democracy; in more established liberal democracies, civil society serves important functions in monitoring the state, holding government officials accountable and counterbalancing state power. Buoyed by the experiences of the former Soviet republics, a number of China scholars turned their attention in the early to mid 1990s to the topic of civil society and whether the proliferation of social organizations in China would lead to democracy. Many scholars cautioned that the concept of civil society as understood in the West may not be applicable to China; some pointed out that civil society was mainly a topic among foreign scholars and Chinese living in exile, and that the idea of civil society has not become part of popular discourse in China; still others argued that state-society relations are better understood in corporatist terms, and that the corporatist nature of social groups in China may serve to bolster the authoritarian regime rather than lead to democracy. I consider whether the concept of civil society is applicable to China and how civil society is best theorized given the differences between the liberal democratic social-political philosophies dominant in the West and alternative conceptions of the relations between the state, society and individual in China. To that end I develop four models for state-society relations: liberal democratic, statist socialist, neo-authoritarian and communitarian. These models combine social political philosophies with a corresponding set of institutions, practices and rules, thus redressing the relative neglect to date in theoretical treatments of civil society in China of the institutional basis of civil society, and in particular the nature of the legal system and its role in creating, structuring and shaping civil society. I also take up the relation between conceptions of civil society and social networks. What do we gain by the change in focus to social networks? What do we lose? I suggest that in calling attention to horizontal relations between individuals and groups in contemporary society, the focus on (affective) social networks offers some insights into the space between the individual and the state missed by the more vertical conceptions of civil society and corporatism. However, social networks are themselves embedded in a vertical structure of state-society relations. Moreover, in many cases, social networks are themselves oriented toward the state in a vertical relationship, and thus constitutive of the vertical state-society structure. In short, attending to social networks enriches our understanding of civil society in China, providing for a form of civil society with Chinese characteristics as it were, rather than offering an alternative framework for analysis. Put differently, social networks studies and theories must still be placed within broader political theories and institutional accounts. The four models that I develop address both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of civil society, thus redressing on the one hand the failure of corporatism to pay adequate attention to horizontal relationships, and on the other the tendency of affective social networks analyses to emphasize the horizontal dimension at the expense of the vertical component or to fail to adequately link up a discussion of affective social networks to different political conceptions of state-society relations.

Religious Diversity and Everyday Ethics in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch City Kampen

In the century when heretics in the Netherlands were persecuted, the Dutch Revolt occurred, and events took place that ultimately led to the National Synod of Dordrecht (1618–19), religion and society were clearly interwoven. Research on this period is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach, such as the one used, to remarkable effect, in the recent studies on the cities of the Reformation (Städteforschung). In the Netherlands, the study of the Reformation in urban settings has also become an important field, one in which both church and “secular” historians have made valuable contributions. Historical work on the period after the Synod of Dordrecht displays, however, far less interest in the relationship between religion and society. Despite this shift in historical focus, religion remained a formative factor in the public life of the Dutch Republic long after 1620. The established church retained its central position in society and continued to influence the design and the development of Dutch culture. The religious community regarded its norms as the basis of civil society. The church wanted to create a social practice in which religion played an influential role in urban life and in the ethics of everyday living.