ABSTRACT
One of the consequences of the rise of civil society is that it has provided a space from which it is possible to question the legitimacy of many existing practical associations that have long been considered legitimate and even foundational (or, to put the matter conversely, it has raised the possibility of delegitimizing many existing practices). Civil society is potentially corrosive of all existing ethical practices – from patriarchal family systems, feudal land-owning systems, tribal authority structures, the system of sovereign states, traditional church orders, vanguard party structures, systems based on racial privilege and indeed, of course, it even places its own standing as itself open to question. In other words, where people declare themselves to be rights holders in civil society, they put all human formations on notice that they may be subject to political scrutiny. ‘Political scrutiny’ meaning, in this case, being subject to a public debate in which everybody has a right to participate.
