ABSTRACT
The economic system is housed within something broader and perhaps as interesting-what is called civil society (Shils 1996 p. 38). According to Edward Shils, “the term civil society is well-established in Western tradition of thought about politics, government, and society.” In particular, it evolved from the wellfounded distinction in Western Europe between a city of the divine and a secular city of man. Georg Hegel identified it in a much more specific sense as “the sector of society beyond the family and short of the state…it was the sphere of private interest, in other words, the market”(Shils 1996 p. 38). In my view, civil society includes the market sector but much more as well. It consists of myriad associations, clubs, business organizations, guilds, labor union, political parties, families, and religious organizations. Civil society is best protected and preserved by a rule of law that delineates the organizations and their members’ rights and duties, including the right to associate, to petition directly or through representatives for a change in government, to have contractual promises enforced, to have human rights protected, to enjoy due process and the opportunity to be listened to, to personal privacy, and to private rights to property. These institutions separate and protect us from the worst abuses that especially governments can inflict.
