Meaning of civil society | Babel Free

Definitions

1. All of the institutions, voluntary organizations and corporate bodies that are less than the state but greater than the family.
   countable, uncountable
2. Those things expected of a democratic society, such as free speech and human rights.
   countable, uncountable
3. Organized, internally peaceful human society; civilization.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The only Way whereby any one divests himself of his natural Liberty, and puts on the Bonds of civil Society, is by agreeing with other Men to join and unite into a Community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure Enjoyment of their Properties, and a greater Security against any that are not of it.”

“Rousseau, however, thought that civil society as such […] is characterized by a fundamental self-contradiction and that it is precisely the state of nature which is free from self-contradiction; man in the state of nature is happy because he is radically independent, whereas man in civil society is unhappy because he is radically dependent.”

“Man’s decision to leave the state of nature is a natural decision. […] Civil society is, in effect, nature rendered reasonable.”

CEFR level