ABSTRACT
Civil society is broadly regarded as the domain of relationships which falls between the private realm of the family on the one hand and the state on the other. A more specific definition of civil society sees it as ‘the social relationships which involve the voluntary association and participation of individuals acting in their private capacities. In a simple and simplistic formula, civil society can be said to equal the milieu of private contractual relationships’ (Tester 1992:8). As such, civil society has been seen as the underpinning of capitalism and bourgeois democracy. However, as recent anthropological work (including White and Rabo, this volume) shows, civil society does not necessarily operate from the premise of liberal individualism. A broader definition of civil society is that of Charles Taylor: ‘a web of autonomous associations independent of the state, which bind citizens together in matters of common concern, and by their existence or actions could have an effect on public policy’ (cited in Kligman 1990:420). If civil society is more like this, then a much wider range of nonstate organisations needs to be included. Organisations which are based on the family or on residence, and which are based neither on contractual relations between unbound individuals nor on self-interest, must also be considered.
