Historically, the concept of "civil society" appeared in ancient Rome and meant a community of Roman citizens. But the term "civil society" itself has become steadily used only in the XYIII century.

During the period of the seventy-year existence of the Soviet state, this concept was not used in teaching the theory of state and law, as well as in scientific research. This is explained by the fact that socialist reality based on a tough hierarchy has sharply dispersed with the theory of civil society.

Currently, in the period of democratic transformations in Russia, the implementation of economic reforms had the need to refer to the works of thinkers of the past to clarify genesis (History's History) The concept of "Civil Society".

Civil society - this is a way of social life based on the right and democracy; A social structure in which a person is guaranteed to a free choice of forms of its economic and political being, the human rights are approved, ideological pluralism is provided. (See: Great Legal Dictionary. M., 1998. P. 135.).

Other words civil society – this is a system of public institutions and relations that are intended to promote the implementation of economic, personal and other interests and the needs of individuals and their teams.

The first ideas about civil society were formed a long time ago, a long evolution was held, starting with the era of the ancient world. Therefore, it can be argued that individual elements of civil society existed in some countries of the ancient world ( Greece, Rome), where the development of crafts, trading has generated inventive cash relations, which has been designing and consolidating in a number of private law institutions, especially Roman private law.

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotlethe basis of civil society called private property which contributes to the fact that a citizen becomes independent and active.

Later, civil society issues were reflected in creativity Cicero . He argued that civil society – this is a combination of citizens who have certain legal rights and duties.. Cicero, justifying the legal equality of people, wrote: «... the law is a binder of civil society, and the right established by law is equally for all» (Cicero. Dialogues. M., 1966. p.24.).

In this wayIn ancient Rome, civil society was understood as a community of his citizens who have certain rights and obligations, i.e. Having appropriate legal relations with the state.

Speaking of the formation of civil society, I want to pay particularly your attention that the history of state-organized society is divided into two pronounced epochs:



(1) the era of caste-class societies based on the legal inequality of members of society , I.

(2) "Civil society", based on legal equality .

A feature of caste-class societies was a solid definition of a legal status in society and the state of each person belonging to a particular class.

In the estate societies, the state and society often merged, as the state apparatus was formed from representatives of the privileged class (free citizens, patricians, nobles), and the Company itself was kept on state-legal regulation and protection of class privileges.

So in Ancient world and B. Middle Ages There were states caste, despotic, slave-owned (aristocratic, tyrannical, democratic, oligarchic) \u200b\u200bfeudal, monarchical, republican, theocratic, etc. in which the dominant estate performed the functions of state power.

The feature of all these states and their legal systems was ABSORPTION society state. Society Ancient Mussechnology The plans were far away that the individual (person) was in power of state-legal prohibitions, orders, restrictions. Its production and other activities, as well as personal life been under the constant control of officials.

Appearance , formation and development civil society occurs as a result

§ state Department from Social Structures ,

§ separation of civil society as relative to the independent sphere of social life and at the same time

§ the denationalization of a number of public relations .

Category "Civil society", which was different from the concepts states, family, tribe, nation became the subject of study in XYII, XYIII, XIXcenturies and thoroughly designed in the works T. Gobbs, D. Kka, J.Zh. Rousse . I. Kant and G. Hegel . These thinkers have already characterized civil society in other things.

So, B. mid XVII B.. English philosopher John Lokk in " Human mind experience"In justifying the socio-political concept based on natural law and theory of public contract . He argued that the basis of civil society is private property which is sacred and inviolable.

Philosophical characteristics of civil society and we find I. Kanta . His main idea comes down to the following: civil freedom of personality, legislatively secured by law, there is a necessary condition for self-improvement, guarantee of the preservation and elevation of human dignity (Cm.: Kant I. The idea of \u200b\u200buniversal history in the Worldwide Civil Plan. M., 1994. T. 1. P. 95.).

A particularly significant contribution to the development of the Civil Society category. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831). In his work " Philosophy of law» civil society Determined as the relationship (communication) of persons through the system of needs and division of labor, justice ( legal institutions and law and order ) ( Philosophy of Law, M., 1990, p. 227 ).

In this paper, it is argued that legal foundations of civil society are

§ equality of people as subjects of law,

§ their legal freedom,

§ individual Private property,

§ inviolability of contracts

§ Protection of the right from violations,

§ as well as ordered legislation and a reputable court, including the jury court.

« In civil society , - writes G. Hegel, - each for yourself - c e ... But without the relationship with others, he cannot achieve all the volume of its goals » ( Hegel Philosophy of law. M., 1990. P. 227.).

Under the civil society, Hegel understood the modern bourgeois society. " Civilian - He wrote, - created, however, only in the modern world e "(p. 228). Hegel's conclusions

about independence of civil society as sphere of private interests in relation to the state ,

about the dependence of the public building from the division of labor and forms of ownership

steel a dialogen step in the development of narrated sciences.

Ideas about civil society as a system of relations of individuals through economic, legal and other relations Received reflection in the works K. Marx and F. Engels .

They noted: due to the release of private property from ancient and medieval community, "The state has acquired an independent existence along with civil society and outside it ..." (Marx K., Engels F. Op. T. 3. P. 35, 62; See also: P. 20-21, 38, etc.).

And further: " Take a certain civil society, and you will receive a certain political system, which is only an official expression of civil society "(Marx K., Engels F. Ot. T. 27. P. 402.).

IN AND. Lenin I did not use the concept of civil society in relation to capitalism, nor in relation to socialism.

As can be seen from the above analysis of the theoretical provisions of thinkers of different times, the introduction of civil society has passed a long evolution.

Formation and development civil society is connected With a significant change

§ social connections and structures,

§ legal and government relations.

Unlike estate and caste societies, civil society is based on recognition Universal legal equality of people who determined a qualitatively new position of the individual in society and the state.

As you remember any state Organized as vertical system where management is carried out from the center, hierarchy state bodies and officials related subordination relations and state discipline. Vertical cozenyclearly pronounced in the structure of the management apparatus. The state system is contained at the expense of society (taxes, fees, state loans).

In contrast to the state civil society represents horizontal system Relations and relations of citizens, their associations, unions, teams. Their relations are addressed on equality and personal initiative, including in the independence of the livelihood of livelihood (for example, due to voluntary contributions by participants).

Therefore, with the formation of civilian education gradually to shift vertical feudal structures horizontal about totals,

§ founded on legal equality and contractual principles of free people

§ relationship constituting the essence of civil society.

Huge social importance had exactly what for the first time in the centuries-old history of mankind, all people, regardless of their social origin and the situation were recognized

§ legally equal participants in public life,

§ having a number of rights recognized rights and freedoms, giving each opportunity to show themselves as a person, endowed with free will, capable of responding for their actions and their legal consequences.

The formation and development of civil society took several centuries. This process is not completed in any country or on a global scale.

In the scale of large regions Europe, and then America can be denoted three stages development of civil society, the transition from each to the next one marked substantial changes.

§ public and state system

§ social and political shocks,

§ mass movements

§ collisions of classes

§ indigenous transformations of public ideology.

At the first stage (approximately XVI-XVII centuries) folded economic, political and ideological Civil society background. These include

§ Industry and trade development,

§ Specialization of production types and in-depth division of labor,

§ Development of commodity-money relations.

With the support of cities and urban classes in a number of countries, centralized national states arose, who had a number of signs of modern states (sovereignty, state treasury, professional management apparatus, etc.).

At the head of the struggle of oppressed classes against feudal inequality and privileges were citizens. From the beginning of the revolution in England ( 1640), As noted, a number of historians are counting New Time.

During this period of time, a coup is carried out in public ideology . What did this mean?The dominant political ideology of the bourgeoisie of that period was LIBERALISM What meant the requirement of non-interference of the state into the part-based relations, the implementation of the legal state only protective functions.

In the specific historical conditions of the XVIII-XIX centuries. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe legal state and liberal slogans on the protection of society and individuals from state power essentially meant the requirement of state neutrality.

During the formation of civil society, the state

§ For some practically performed as purely punitive power ,

§ for the second - as guardian wealth and related social opportunities.

This was due to the unfolded in the XIX century. Socialist and democratic criticism, the essence of which came down to ensure that the state is not only "the state - night guard."

Requirements " social state », not only the protection of the law and order, but also conducting social policy in the interests of poor and society as a whole

§ Legislative regulation of the duration of the working day,

§ restriction and prohibition of child and women's labor,

§ Social security of disabled and unemployed,

§ Universal education at the expense of the state, free health care, etc.

Already Hegel I saw the burden of civil society with contradictions of wealth and poverty.

Marx He sentenced the bourgeois society a harsh sentence, based on his conclusions, which capitalism by the middle of the XIX century. He became the brake development of the productive forces, and the beggar proletariat should destroy the bourgeois society, having carried out a communist revolution.

However, the story judged differently. Movement of the working class

§ created a mechanism to counter the egoism of entrepreneurs;

§ Industrial society managed to cope with economic crises and numerous class;

§ development of representative institutions of power Created prerequisites for increasingly consistent in the current state policy not only the classological and egoistic interests of the bourgeoisie, but also the interests of other classes, as well as the whole society as a whole.

In the second stage (approximately the end of the XVII - the end of the XIX in.) The history of civil society continued to issue a modern representative state, the development of trends of increasingly subordination to its public monitoring and influence.

Firstly , the control of representative and judicial institutions for the activities of the Central and local executive authorities was expanded and strengthened;

secondly , the circle of persons using electoral and other political rights;

thirdly The dependence of representative institutions from the system of political parties and movements, including those claiming to express and protect the interests of workers, as well as socially disadvalled members of society, has arisen and constantly intensified.

Beginning third stage The development of civil society can be considered the line XIX - XX V.V. By this time, the leading place in industry and trade was transferred from private entrepreneurs and merchants to industrial, shopping and financial corporations.

A significant role in the development of civil society plays representative state . Underlying such a society

§ legal equality,

§ rights and freedoms of the individual

§ The separation and relative independence of the state from society, and societies from the state,

§ Representative institutions and other democratic institutions created a state-legal shell, to maximize the state to subordinate the state to public influence and control,

§ use it to solve controversial public problems,

§ warn social explosions,

§ To stop attempts by any group of society or a party to enlite their private interests by society.

The state appears not only as a "night watchman", only protective functions. More and more in its activities occupy such positive functions as

§ Organization of social security,

§ Management of folk education, health care and other social functions.

In the XX century Significantly increased the role of the state and in regulating economic relations. As a result of the expansion of the social activity of the state, the scope of public law increased.

Summing up said, modern civil society, including the emerging in Russia, certain signs that contribute to a deeper understanding of its nature should be characterized..

Such signs include:

1) Providing and protecting natural (integral) rights and freedoms of a person as the institution of civil society, imparting them to the necessary legal form in the form of citizenship rights and freedoms.

2) variety of ownership forms, economic freedom of business entities, market relations;

3) non-interference of the state in the privacy of citizens;

4) mutual responsibility of the state and citizens;

5) Effective social policy aimed at achieving a high life level, the well-being of the population;

6) ideological and political pluralism;

7) Equality of all before the law and justice, reliable legal protection of the personality;

8) freedom of speech and press, the independence of the media;

9) Social partnership, national and religious consent;

10) The widespread development of direct democracy, the formation and functioning of various forms of self-government in various spheres of public relations.

Currently, the understanding of civil society has received further development. Many scientists under civil society understand

§ not only a community of own citizens, but also other persons living on the territories of this state , as well as

§ The various self-governing communion of people being created by them - public organizations, political parties, religious, national And other formation, business structures which act independently of the state.

Such an understanding makes it possible to allocate civil society into an independent social education, possessing its own characteristic features that can be divided intothree components:

§ structure,

§ norma

§ I. arising based on these norms public relations.

What was noted above civil society This is a system of public institutions and relations, designed to promote the implementation of personal and other needs of individuals and their teams. .

Structure of civil society Includes a whole system of social non-state formations, which are formed and function independently of the state,

Structural elements of civil society act :

§ family, public organizations,

§ cooperatives, Associations, Business Structures and corporation,

§ party, Professional, Creative, Sport, Ethnic, Confessional and other associations, as well as

§ individuals (Own citizens, foreign citizens and stateless persons living in this state).

All listed civil society structures are created from below on the basis of the unity of interests, and not at the pointer of higher state bodies.

Wherein wide constitutional rights and freedoms citizens and not citizens of this state are legal basis for the social activity of citizens and the formation of social and other organizations that are civil society institutions.

Without wide rights and freedoms of citizens in all spheres of social life, the formation and functioning of civil society is impossible.

Normative base based on which functions civil society, It consists of the norms of private law, morality, morality, religious, ethnic rules, customs, traditions, norms of public organizations, rules of the universal hostel, ethical, rules operating in the field of business, etc.

Legal normswho are guided by the subjects of civil society, regulate them relations Based on equality, independence and independence from each other. They do not provide for subordination of one social formation to another and establish partnerships. Each participant is guided by its interests and goals, chooses the partner appropriate to his interests and goals and interacts with it, taking on certain obligations, and voluntarily performs them.

Legal base activities of civil society institutions must be big enough So that it could provide an independent and legal solution to them all their main problems without appeal to the state. Only in this case, civil society will have real strength and will be able to provide the necessary influence on the activities of the state and in general on the development of society.

At the same time in the process mutual relationship and interrelated activities of civil society

§ not only use existing legal and other norms,

§ But also form new moral, moral rules,

§ as well as customs, traditions,

§ demand from state The adoption of the rules of law corresponding to their interests, cancellation or replacement of obsolete.

In the process of implementing the above rules and rules in civil society arrows defined I. sustainable system of public relations between its subjects.

This system relationship provides A certain stability of the functioning of civil society in the economic, moral, moral, cultural, interpersonal, family and other spheres of public life.

Creating structures civil society, the formation of its norms and rules, as well as its functioning occurs independently of the state, which operates in its field - in the sphere of state-owned power relations. State intervention in the field of civil society occurs only when subjects of civil society cannot solve their disputes and contradictions themselves. In this case, they appeal to government agencies, primarily judicial, which, on the basis of the law, solve their question.

State also intervene in the life of civil society When committing offenses, its subjects. In this case, the state has the power to restore the legality and law enforcement, the violated rights of a subject of civil society, and the guilty offenders attracts legal responsibility.

Based on the above, we can say that civil Society represents non-state community of people united in various formations in order to meet their individual and group interests and needs and the realization of potential opportunities for the benefit of associations and each individual individual .

The subjects of civil society are valid on the basis of and in accordance with legal and non-law and rules - moral, moral, religious, regulations of public organizations, customs, traditions and others without state intervention.

Thus, the state and civil society are two components of society acting independently and independently from each other, but interacting among themselves in solving common tasks.

At the same time, the relationship between the state and society should be based on equilibrium equal to the legal opportunities of the state's impact on society and society - to the state.

The dominance of one of them can lead either to the dominance of the state, its totalitarian domination in society, or to the destruction of the state, as unable to ensure its own preservation, as well as the protection of the rights of citizens, public organizations, to Anarchism and Chaos.

The conditions for ensuring the equilibrium of the state and civil society is with

§ one side state legitimacy, i.e. legitimate formation of its main bodies directly people and accountability to him, and with

§ other - Envasibility of citizens and civil society institutions.

74. State and civil society and their ratio.

In recent years, the issue of relation civil society and legal state Attracted the attention of academic social scientists, and law scientists. In scientific research, it is recognized that where people openly create their associations interact with each other, without resorting to the services of state-legal institutions, civil society begins there.

At the same time, civil society as a social phenomenon is organically connected with the state, state power.

Relationship of state and civil society Complex and diverse in its content.

Such a relationship is advisable to consider in three aspects.:

firstly, Install what is manifested unity States and civil society;

secondly , determine what features, properties, features define them differences ;

third, to find out reconciliation These phenomena, forms of such relationships.

Unity of civil society and state expressed in the coincidence of their many goals and tasks .

AND formation legal state, I. creature civil society pursue one common goal: social institutions are designed to serve a person, protect his rights and interests.

Considered unity manifests itself in that the organization and activities of the main socio-political, economic and social structures are carried out in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the current legislation.

So, the right of citizens to union enshrined in Art. 30 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. As can be seen, the right to unite, in essence, is the right to free and independently selection by citizens of any forms of non-state activities that do not contradict the requirements of the law. Such associations are the necessary component of civil society.

The unity of civil society and the state seems that it provides conditions for self-expression and freedom of a person, his initiative, entrepreneurship, etc.

In the Constitution of the Russian Federation consolidated variety of ownership forms, including private, multi-Parliament, political pluralism, wide economic, political and personal rights and freedom man and citizen.

This suggests that in the new conditions of Russian citizens there are legal possibilities that allow them not only to realize themselves with the subjects of civil society, but also to realize their personal and collective interests.

Unity civil society and the legal state also detected in the fact that they are formed at the same time .

Civil society multifaceted . Here, how many people and associations, so many interests and ways of their presentation.

Constitutional state one , personifies the "Broan Ridge" and at the same time form ("hoop") of society. The state is important in the moment of general interest (or integrated interest) and the will of most citizens.

If you "remove" the legal state, then the society will "fall apart" into competing and struggling among themselves.

Without a legal state, public associations, as structural elements of civil society, can waste their energy to find out relations, endless disputes, collisions.

Finally, unity The social and legal phenomena under consideration finds its expression in democratic political mode . The content of such a regime make up

§ Civilized techniques, ways to implement state power and the provision of rights and freedoms to citizens,

§ Active participation in the political, economic, socio-cultural and other areas of society.

Civil society. Formation and development

V.A. Konovalov, K. Yurid.n., Associate Professor,

Orenburg Institute MGU

In the current reality, the "Legal State" and "Civil Society" are not only components of one whole, but also determine mutual development. The interaction of the "legal state" and "civil society" occurs in accordance with the action of the universal philosophical category of "content and forms". The legal state in this case acts as a "form", the outer shell, within which there is civil society as a "content", internal filling.

Civil society does not immediately appear as a highly developed system, it grows gradually from the more low-type communities. The formation of civil society occurs against the background of strengthening the statehood and the development of various forms of ownership. With the development of democracy, civil society is increasingly coming out from under the guardianship of the state, and the question arises about their interaction. For a more complete disclosure of issues of interaction between the state office and civil society, it is necessary to consider the content of the definition of "Civil Society".

The concept of "civil society" is the same ancient as the concept of "state". For more than two millennia, these two phenomena of objective reality exist and interact. All this time, they are investigated by scientists that are sometimes highly contradictory theories about their occurrence and existence. One of the first scientists who nominated the thesis that citizens living in the state make up civil society was Aristotle. He wrote that "before it is to determine that there is a state, it should find out the concept of a citizen, for the state is nothing more than a totality of citizens, civil society."

Such a point of view may have been justified in the context of ancient Greek democracy, when most free citizens participated in the management of the state's affairs, and managerial work was not paid. However, later researchers did not support Aristotle's point of view that the state is civil society. Further development The concept of "civil society" received in the works of Gegel and some other philosophers.

The closer to the modern understanding of civil society approached the city of Hegel. He systematized the achievements of the French, Anglo-Saxon and German public thought and came to the conclusion that civil society is a special stage in a dialectical movement from the family to the state

G. Hegel tied civil society with a treaty theory of origin of the state.

Russian scientists have not been engaged in civil society problems for a long time. In an active scientific turnover, this concept is included since the beginning of the 90s. This circumstance can be explained by the fact that it is at this time that civil institutions receive new development and begin to play an increasing role in the state management affairs. In this regard, there was a need to rethink the content of the role of society in the life of the state. It should be noted that the category "Civil society" is not only legal, but also historical, philosophical and political scientist. That is why recently many scientists have expressed their opinions on the content of the concept of "civil society".

For example, S.L. Serebryakov said that "civil society is a system of social relationships that ensure the vital activity of social and cultural and community-polytic institutions independent of the state and designed to provide conditions for self-realization of the individual."

A significant value of this definition gives the fact that the author indicates spheres in which civil society implements its capabilities, but completely undeservedly, in our opinion, he forgets the economic sphere. But it is the realization of an individual of its potential in the field of production relations creates a basis for the development of the socio-cultural and socio-political sphere.

More complete, from this point of view, can be considered a definition given in the political scientist dictionary. It is indicated that civil society is "society with developed economic, cultural, legal and political relations between its members, independent of the state, but interacting with it, a society of citizens of high social, economic, political, cultural, moral status, creating jointly with State developed legal relations. "

V.G. Smolkov argues that civil society - "This is part of society that is taken as if outside the political power, including non-political relations, that is, the totality of all non-governmental relations and institutions expressing the variety of values, interests and needs of people." A.P. Kochetkov notes that civil society is "a system of incortive social relations and institutions that give the opportunity to a person to realize his civil rights and expressing a variety of needs, interests and values \u200b\u200bof members of society."

A large number of opinions about the content of the concept of "civil society" is largely due to the fact that it is examined not only by specialists in the field of jurisprudence, but also philosophers, political scientists, historians. Nevertheless, you can distinguish two main approaches to the definition of the concept. Some believe that freedom is the highest value of civil society, and the civil society itself is considered as a protective mechanism of the individual from the state. This point of view received the name of the liberal-democratic. Supporters of another approach, socio-democratic, believe that civil society is the basis of all social and political life. They say that civil society should form power structures, and those in turn identify the foundations of the existence of civil society.

We will try to allocate the most important signs of civil society from the point of view of state. First, civil society is characterized by the special kind of public relations that add up in society. These relationships can only develop in public life. Such relationships can develop only in the state, where the population takes an active political position and seeks to participate in solving the overwhelming majority of public affairs. A prerequisite is also the presence of many years of democratic traditions. In addition, in our opinion, these relationships should be legal relations, although it is impossible to deny and regulating the values \u200b\u200bof morality and customs.

Secondly, the relationship between the state and civil society should not have the nature of the vertical subordination, not to mention that the state does not directly lead the leadership of various structures of civil society. These relationships must mainly be the nature of approval, coordination and interaction. In other words, civil society structures should be independent of the state and are formed on the initiative of individuals.

Based on this, it can be said that civil society is independent of the state, but the system of social relations with it for the purpose of progressive development and self-realization of the personality, covering all spheres of public and public life. In the future, speaking of civil society, we will proceed from this definition.

Civil society is, first of all, not any structures, but the qualitative state of society, however, to implement its interests, individuals should somehow unite. Therefore, revealing the issue of the relationship of the state apparatus and citizens

dansky society should not be parted on the structure of civil society, since in practice it is some of its elements that interact with specific state structures. When trying to make a structural analysis of civil society, it appears before us as a rather complicated education, which fit into the framework of a particular, real society.

As the main elements of civil society, most authors identify: public associations, including political parties, mass movements, public amateur bodies, charitable funds, consumer associations, scientific, cultural, sports societies, etc., lobbying structures; religious associations; independent media; family; Industrial structures free from direct state leadership.

In fact, a specific state social and political education consists of two main elements - from the state and civil society. Both of these elements make up a single system, and each of them performs certain functions. Quite right, in our opinion, I.B. Levin notes that "the Citizen Society performs the functions of the integration of society, the introduction of social conflicts into the civilized framework, the production of norms and values, which then bonds by its sanction, the formation of the environment where socially active individuals are formed." The functions could be added to the listed functions, the formation of it in accordance with the democratic norms and interests of citizens.

All authors exploring the problems of civil society unanimously suggest that it is an integral part of the communities of people who have formed on a voluntary basis to jointly solve common problems. However, there is no unity in understanding this phenomenon. Revealing this issue, we will be guided by the classification of public associations, which is given in the current legislation.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Federal Law "On Public Associations", under the public association means "voluntary, self-governing, non-commercial formation, created on the initiative of citizens who united on the basis of the generality of interests to implement the general objectives specified in the Charter of the Public Association." This definition corresponds to the criteria that we allocated as mandatory civil society.

The generally accepted element of civil society infrastructure is a developed system of poly-

patics. It can be said that political parties are the most massive layers between the individual and the state, they place their goal not only the expression of the political views of various sectors of society, but also penetration into power structures. Through a branched party system, citizens have a real opportunity to influence the political processes occurring in society, to express their moods and implement interests. Parties are the most important channel of the political self-expression of various social forces, the implementation of interests on the political arena and thereby the form of inclusion of a person in political processes.

In the scientific literature, those functions that are carried out in society by political fields are quite detailed. In our opinion, the most important is the function of expressing political interests. It is difficult, of course, to say that political parties are huge teams of absolute like-minded people. It can only be about expressing any of the most important political interests. K.G. Kholodovsky calls them "aggregated interests." As a result of the aggregation of interests, a general position is developed by key points, on the basis of which the general political course is produced, a political program.

Another equally important feature is an integration function. The integrative function is aimed at railing the state's population, or its part around the idea. The function of mobilization and orientation is aimed at organizing citizens to actively participate in political struggle, contributes to the implementation of the main goal of any political party - the conquest of power.

A developed party system performs the function of forming a political opposition. The presence of a political opposition is the most important sign of civil society. The opposition puts pressure on political power to make decisions that take into account the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population participates in the correction of a political course. In addition, the political opposition exercises control functions in relation to power structures.

As part of the activities of political parties, another very important state function is performed. We are talking about the function of selection and rotation of frames for the state apparatus. The replenishment of the state apparatus is carried out by two main ways. First, due to the cultivation of personnel in the structures of power. This method was called a bureaucratic. And, secondly, the staff of the state apparatus can be replenished due to the personnel of political parties, in case of arrival

them to power. The second way opens access to state structures to wide politically active masses of the population. The advantage of the second path is that people who are not bound by bureaucratic traditions come to the state apparatus. However, in the overwhelming majority, these are people who do not have experience in the state apparatus.

Considering the above, you can agree with the opinion of A.N. Kulika that "The Modern Party is a public organization that puts the main purpose of obtaining, holding and implementing power (independently either in the coalition with others) through the promotion of its representatives to the key posts in the state, based on the support of the Company obtained in free state with others Party in the electoral process. "

Civil society make up various voluntary organizations and movements. Exceptionally important place among them are occupied by trade unions. The trade unions belong a special role in the process of the formation of civil society, its democratization and giving it a social orientation. They largely contribute to the public relations, developing within civil society, are based on such universal values \u200b\u200bas independence, freedom, tolerance, self-esteem.

Civil society arises during the formation of market relations and develops with them. One of the paradoxes of this development is that, arising on the basis of free economic relations, the activities of individual civil society institutions are aimed at restricting full freedom of entrepreneurship, that is, they act contrary to the laws of market development. First of all, this refers to the activities of trade unions.

The trade union movement in the Russian Federation has its own regulatory regulation. In accordance with the current legislation, the trade union is defined as "voluntary public association of citizens associated with common industrial, professional interests by the nature of their activities created for the purpose of representation and protection of their socio-labor rights and interests."

This definition contains the main signs of the phenomenon under consideration, but it has some inaccuracies. So, a professional union is defined as a public association. But the order of education and the rules of activity of public associations are determined by the Federal Law "On Public Associations". If the legislator really considers trade unions as one of the varieties of public unite

it is necessary to specify which particular legal form they are formed. And if trade unions are considered as an independent subject of civil society on a par with public associations, then in definition it is necessary to use another term.

Another inaccuracy of the definition is associated with those subjects that can be participants in trade unions. The definition states that the trade union brings together citizens, while the law provides for the opportunity to participate in trade unions of foreigners and stateless persons. Not quite correctly, in our opinion, it is determined that the persons participating in the trade union are related "common production, professional interests by their nature." General industrial and professional interests can be producer of products, supplier of raw materials and sales of finished products, but they will not be commonly uniform in one trade union. In our opinion, it would be properly indicated that the trade union brings together persons employed at the enterprise or in the industry.

Initially, trade unions in Western countries were as opposed to the dictatorship of large capital. They contributed to the conquest to worrying social benefits, upholding their economic rights and interests. Trade unions were an important factor in the formation of civil society in the interests of workers. Those trade unions that were in the Soviet Union can be considered elements of civil society with a large stretch. They practically did not fulfill the function of representation and defend the interests of workers. Trade union management fully depended on the administration of the enterprise and the party organization. In addition, the principle of voluntary participation in the trade union was disturbed. Due to these reasons, trade unions that came out of the Soviet period of our development cannot be considered ready-made elements of civil society. Professional unions will be based on many other elements of civil society to undergo a long path of becoming and fitting into the system of a legal state.

Relationship in the economy is one of the subsystems of modern civil society. In Russia, the system of economic relations, in its new understanding, is undergoing a period of its formation, and its collective subjects - trade unions and the associations of employers are still formed. The most progressive form of relationships between the employer and the employee around the world is considered a collective agreement. In our conditions, with its conclusion, there is often dictators from the employer. This suggests that trade unions are currently not provided

significant influence on the process of formation of civil society. The same state of affairs was characteristic of the initial period of development of production relations in Western countries, when employees did not have most social rights.

The trade union movement in its developed form of existence is capable of quite efficiently, consolidated to influence not only economic relations, but also to political. For modern Russia, not consolidated, but separate scattered performances aimed at defending the interests of the narrow circle of workers. Despite the high politicization of Russian society, the role of trade unions in the development of civil society through the political sphere is still weak.

World practice shows that in the context of the development of a democratic society, special people or groups of people become one of the mandatory components of public life, formally not combined in structures, but having the opportunity to influence the decision taken in the state. We are talking about activities that received the name "Lobbying".

The emergence and growth of influence groups, as well as their desire for self-organization, is not a purely Russian phenomenon. On the global political arena, such groups have existed throughout the class history of humanity, but they received the greatest development in the post-war time. The prerequisite for this was the deep changes in the social structure of society. In public life, an increasing number of different groups, movements, corporations with their specific interests and requirements, which not only complemented each other, but, in some cases, they were conflict.

Completely reasonable, in our opinion, I.S. Semenneko allocates the following types of lobbying groups operating in Russian society: political, economic, social and regional. To the political type, he refers "groups, which among the priorities of the activity put forward to ensure the impact on political processes (including by participating in elections), are directly involved in political struggle and are characterized by a high degree of self-organization." A large number of politicized associations operating on the Russian political arena (more than 150) speaks of emergency fragmentation of political lobbyists and about the diversity of interest they represented.

Lobbying social interests in Russia, unfortunately, does not have such essential strength as the promotion of political and economic interests. Probably, this can be explained by the low social activity wide

mass of the population. But this does not mean that the social lobby is completely absent. It is enough to recall the growing activity of environmental movements, activities of veterans, pensioners, consumers. It is hoped that over time, large-scale social movements will be a tangible counterweight entrepreneurial lobby.

Regional interests are currently presented predominantly organized structures, but by individual influential political leaders. Nevertheless, regions can effectively defend their interests. They pretty successfully establish cooperation without the mediation of the federal authorities.

On how diverse the form of impact of the lobby on the state apparatus can only be guessing, since most of the interests of promoting interest are informal and is not reflected in any documents. The most active work lobbyists lead in the legislative bodies. They are actively trying to promote projects of laws, reflecting the needs of individual social groups, or amendments to already existing laws. The activity of lobbyists at this stage is reduced to personal work with deputies and experts who are members of the working groups.

At the stage of refinement of the project, industry and regional lobbying prevails. After the law is approved by the chambers of the Federal Assembly, you can try to make changes at the stage of its pass through the presidential structures. The practice of adopting the law shows that natural monopolies are the most effective lobbyists, which is quite logical explained by their stable financial position and "old" connections with the state apparatus.

In the conditions of the transition from a centralized authoritarian state to a democratic law, many social and legal institutions are reassessing, including attitude to the media. In the new conditions, their role is increasing as an integral part of civil society, the question of the legal regulation of their activities is solved in a new way. The revaluation of the role of the media in the life of society takes place in the mass consciousness, and in the consciousness of officials representing the state's office. This revaluation is based on the idea that democracy is impossible not to be able to receive complete, objective and timely information.

The role of the media is very high in any society. In Russia, it is largely determined by the fact that our citizens have been given a thought for many decades,

named in the television program. Therefore, in Russia, very high faith in what is reported in the media.

The role of the media in civil society and the legal state is determined by the functions they perform. The most complete list, in our opinion, gave A.A. Chichanov-sky. He says that the functions of the media are: "Communication function (intermediary function); social mobilization function; informational function; value orientation function; Communicative and aesthetic function. "

Many politicians and journalists often express the idea that the media is the "fourth power." It would be more correct to determine the role of the media as an intermediary between the structures of power and society. It should not be submitted by the role of mediation, since the media at the same time have the ability to independently interpret many provisions.

The importance of the role of the media in the legal state is obvious. From here there is a need for legal regulation of their activities.

At the same time, it is necessary to proceed from that freedom of speech, on the one hand, did not become information lawlessness, and on the other hand, it is impossible to be unreasonably limited. Legal framework should be established, in which the media could act without infringement of the right of citizens on the timely receipt of reliable information. Strict restrictions on the dissemination of information preaching violence, national solutions and other ideas that contradict the norms of morality should also be established.

Legal regulation of the media activities should ensure compliance with the interests of all participants in the information process, ranging from the object that information is given to its consumer. At the same time, the right of citizens to receive information cannot be considered as a prerequisite for the restriction of other constitutional rights of citizens, for example, the right to privacy.

A.A. Chichanovsky indicates three possible options for the relationship between the media and the state apparatus. "Firstly, when the media is fully independent of the state, but at the same time receive information from power about its plans and actions and take on the performance of the control function of power structures. The second option offers media cooperation with the state to the extent that it finances them. The third option suggests that the media work under the control of the state, their policies are carried out and create a positive image to all authority structures. "

It is necessary to achieve such a state of affairs so that the media worked on all three specified areas, since only in conditions

the lack of any dominance is possible free development, characteristic of the functioning of civil society and the legal state. The mutual influence of society and the state begins in the earliest stages of their occurrence and development. The state forms the authorities to provide the management impact on society. The Company creates various structural elements that defend the interests of specific individuals and social groups before the state. In the process of their interaction and struggle, development occurs, at a certain stage of which society develops into civil society, and the state in the legal state. Civil society is in constant development and creates new structures that are formed as its institutions.

The development of civil society institutions is possible only within the framework of law outlined. Fully free development of identically anarchy. However, only awareness of the subjects of civil society the need to produce certain positive actions is clearly not enough, since they cannot be absolutely equally looking at the same phenomena. Differences in views are inevitable and due to various conditions of formation of consciousness. From here, objectively implies the need for legal regulation of the process of the development of civil society institutions, introducing it into certain legal boundaries. It is the norms of law that are guidelines that contribute to the development of civil society. In the creation of legal norms that determine the procedure for the legal development of civil society, civil society itself takes an active part. His various institutions not only affect the content of the rules of law governing their development, but the norms themselves are created under pressure from civil society. At the same time, such a quality of civil society is manifested as the ability to self-organization. Self-organization of civil society is the most important part of social management along with state regulation. However, the self-regulation of civil society should not be comprehensive. You can agree with the opinion of K.I. Varlamov, when he says that "so that the market self-regulation would not turn into the rampant elements, the correction or exposure is needed, it must be supplemented with regulation, management, system of legislative and other measures by the state, trade unions, other political institutions, Directed, first of all, mainly to ensure social protection of citizens. "

A prerequisite for the formation of civil society is the development of economics

relationships. The historical experience of the development of Western countries shows that the state plays a decisive role in strengthening the economy.

However, the regulatory importance of the state in this matter cannot be absoluting. The impact of the state should be carried out with such a calculation in order not to harm entrepreneurship. The state, primarily, is intended to create normal conditions for the development of entrepreneurship, and not to carry out direct regulation in this area. Direct regulatory impact from the state is possible only in areas that are outside the action of market self-regulation. Such areas include defense, safety, crime fighting, social security, antitrust regulation.

However, the regulatory impact from the state is not limited to the specified areas. The goal of regulation, on the one hand - to prevent anarchy in society, and on the other - not to create obstacles to the free development of entrepreneurship. The regulatory impact should not be directed to the prohibition, but to stimulate various forms of economic activity, including private entrepreneurship, in relation to which the state should have a clear and understandable credit, tax and tariff policy.

The fundamental difference between civil society from the totalitarian is primarily in the main methods of managing impact. If in terms of totalitarianism, direct coercion is assumed in all areas, the civil society is intended to organize. However, in any case, coercion is inevitable. In civil society, coercion is possible only equally to all of its members, and in no case selectively.

In some periods of the development of the Russian state, we believed that over time, the state apparatus will be honored and universal public self-government will be established. Historical experience shows that, indeed, with the development of a legal state, various elements of civil society have an increasing impact on social management processes. However, excluding extreme points of view, we note that if there is ever complete replacement of the state apparatus with elements of civil society, it will happen in a very distant future.

Literature

1. Aristotle. Politics. Works in 4 volumes. M., 1983. T. 4.

2. Hegel, Philosophy of Law. M., 1990.

3. Serebryakov, S.L. Civilized basics for the formation of civil society in Russia // Socketonal journal. 1995. №2.

4. Political dictionary. M., 1993.

5. Smolkov, V.G. Civil society and state. Civil society. M., 1993.

6. Kochetkov, A.P. Russia on the threshold of the XXI century. M., 1998.

7. Levin, I.B. Civil society in the West and Russia // Polis. 1996. №5.

8. Kholodovsky, V.G. Civil society in Russia: structures and consciousness. M.: Science, 1998.

9. Kulik, A.N. Parties as the Institute of Representative Democracy in the West and post-Soviet Russia. Problemable collection. M.: Inion RAS, 1995.

10. Semenhenko, I.S. Civil society in Russia: Structure and consciousness. M.: Norm, 1998.

11. Chichanovsky, A.A. The interaction of the media and power structures in the context of the modernization of Russian society. Diss. In the form of a scientific report ... Doc. Polit. science M., 1995.

12. Varlamov, K.I. Civil society: personality, society and state. Civil society. Rau: Collection of articles ed. prof. V.G. Smolkova. M.: Loose, 1993.

Initially, the term civil society (or community) arose during the times of antiquity and the Middle Ages, when the concept of the very concept, characteristics of a special quality, or style, and the collaboration of members of small communities (cities-states) occur. The main feature of this style was political communication. The policy was perceived as the art of a joint life within the polis teams. "Plato justifies the idea of \u200b\u200ba fair, virtuous social device. Aristotle says that the state is sufficient for self-sufficient existence of a set of citizens, Cicero emphasizes that the law is a binder of civil society, and the right established by law is the same for all "Chistyakov N.M. The theory of state and law: a tutorial. M, 2010. - P. 268.

For a long time, civil society was fully identified with the state, which was due to the weak development of the division of labor, commodity-monetary relations, the existence of the concept of caste and classes.

Since civil society is a whole complex of relations within society and in relation to the state, it is impossible to apply any one characteristic to it. Therefore, to look for the prerequisites of civil society, according to I.I. Salted, it makes sense to look for on the turn of the transition from agrarian to the industrial society. That is why elements of civil society are most pronounced primarily in the economy.

At the second stage, there is a substantiation of conceptual provisions, the formation of the theory itself (J.Zh. Rousseau, J. Locke, Sh. Montesquieu, I. Kant, V. Gumboldt, G. Hegel, etc.).

"As a scientific concept, civil society has emerged in the era of folding capitalist relations in Europe during the British and French bourgeois-democratic revolutions of the XVII-XVIII centuries. For the first time, it was used by the English philosophers T. Gobbs and J. Lockey to indicate a certain stage of the historical development of human society, its transition from natural to civilized existence "Kryaklin T.F. Civil Society: Classic and Modern Concepts // Civil Society and Legal State. 2013. T. 1. - P. 17.

In 1215, the Great Charter of Valibilities was adopted in England, in which the principle of parliamentarism was approved. Further, a number of documents (petition on the rights of 1628, the Declaration on the Rights of 1688) was designated a wide range of personal rights, which even more separated society from the state (monarchical power).

The famous French Declaration of Human Rights and a citizen of 1789 is becoming another milestone in the development of civil society ideas. "Declaration proclaimed as higher principles: justice, freedom, equality, safety, fraternity, resistance to oppression, versoity, control of the state to society, the inviolability of private property, equality of all citizens" Sokolov A.N., Serbintsev K.S., Civil Society: Problems formation and development (philosophical and legal aspects), Kaliningrad, 2009. - P. 15 ..

Forever entered the use of the principle: "All that is not prohibited by law is allowed, and the declaration provides for guarantees of human rights and other legal foundations of civil society.

Interesting is the fact that already in the XVIII century V. Humboldt allocated three differences between civil society and the state.

To the first one, he referred: a system of national, public institutions formed by individuals themselves; Natural and common law; man.

The state, in his opinion, consists of: Systems of state institutions; positive law; citizen.

More clearly delimited civil society and the state of Hegel. He "concluded that civil society as a sphere of private interests, as the relationship of people through the system of needs and division of labor, independently towards the state, but it is closely related to it, because it needs legal agencies and law and order, justice, as well as in the police and Organs providing an external order "Chistyakov N.M. The theory of state and law: a tutorial. M, 2010. - P. 268 ..

According to the philosophical justification I. Kantav, the basis of the civil legal state must be put in principles:

Freedom of each member of society as a person;

Its equality with each other as subjects;

Independence (a person should create on their own and respond to the deed);

Collisions of interest and the need for their protection, which are the causes of people's self-improvement;

Civil liberty condition - self-improvement of people.

Italian cities in Northern Italy appeared with a serious advance on the way to civil society, where the formed guilds and the workshop actively participated both in economic and political life. "As noted by N. Makiavelli, the world and the safety of citizens, the pleasure of their property and wealth, the right of everyone to have and defend their beliefs was considered as social values." Kalny I.I. Civil society: origins and modernity. St. Petersburg, 2000. - P. 55-56 ..

In the narrow sense of the word, the concept of civil society as a collective community, a whole, existing independently of the state, was finally imposed in the XIX-XX centuries. In the third stage, the formation and further development of the theory of civil society occur.

The materialistic characteristic of the analyzed phenomenon and the category of its reflective, Dali K. Marx and F. Engels.

Two directions can be distinguished in the definition of the concept of civil society:

"Civil society as a set of production relations and a form of communication associated with them;

transformation of the concept of civil society in the concept of socio-economic formation ".Sokolov A.N., Serbintsev K.S., Civil society: problems of formation and development (philosophical and legal aspects), Kaliningrad, 2009. - P. 85

By the end of the XIX century, the development of the Marx Concept has reached an incredibly widespread distribution in Europe, but by a majority of scientists the processes of civil society formation were considered with the priority of class confrontation, and not wider relations "civil society-state". Gradually, this theory began to move out, which led to the division of the life of society to state and non-state, "influencing the formation and adoption of political, administrative decisions and on the generating public opinion". Called I.I. Civil society: origins and modernity. SPB, 2000. - p. 59.

In the XXVEK, both of these directions were found: the first in Western European social-democratic thought, the second - in the Bolshevik Russia.

Socialist science did not consider the concept of "civil society" as such, however, as well as the concept of a "legal state", and therefore for many years it left the study field "as unnecessary."

The tour of the formation of the ideas of civil society allows you to draw your understanding of this phenomenon. Of course, this is a certain level (highest) of society in general. He suggests such a system of relations between people, individuals that ensures freedom of each subject to the interests of all, through the creation and use of the diversity of forms and institutes, which allows to function this society independently without the acting state intervention, to develop and improve their system using existing rules , traditions and customs possessing highly moral and generalistic principles.

At each stage of the World History there were their ideas about the state and civil society, developed on the basis of the state-legal and social phenomena existing on that period, their vision of their borders and the nature of relationships.

Consider modern views on the problem of creating civil society and building a rule of law in the context of Russian conditions.

The concept of civil society was widely used in the seventeenth century in England (in English Civil Society), and then in other states and the main idea of \u200b\u200bhim is that society consisting of individual individuals - citizens is obliged to have their own laws permitting manifestations in relation to each The individual is the possibility of arbitrary intervention by state bodies.

The history of the appearance of the concept

The term civil society was first introduced by Aristotle. This concept comes from the Latin Words of Civilic (from Lat. Means Civil), Civitas (from Latin means the state), Civis (from Latin means a citizen).

It seems to be correct to distinguish the three main principles that form civil society - personality, society and state power. At the same time, their relationship in the process of evolution varies qualitatively.

Renaissance

In the seventeenth century, English philosopher Thomas Gobs in his writings first in Leviafane, and then in the work "On Citizen" was presented with a new strategy of civil society, which emerged when the transition from the irrational primitive state of tribal opposition in the direction of an ordered developed society, whose individuals in turn are subject to State authorities.

According to the views of the prominent philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, here, in addition to Thomas Gobs, John Locke should be highlighted. Cant, civil society - the union of individualities, society, where any of its members acquires the highest human qualities. But at the same time, the state prevails over civil society.

German school

German sociologists and economists - Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels adhere to a fundamentally different concept. They argue that civil society is an object of an extractable and economic vital activity of humanity. This is the priority in relations with the state, civil life as a set of various interests strengthens the state.

It seems that in the basis of the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil society, there are constant motion: continuous modification, rationalization and breakthrough from the most underdeveloped state of individual, civil society and power to a higher and civil society. J. Rousseau calculated the foundations of this movement as a promotion of citizenship, rationality and civility, which means the formation of the most developed individual, improving relations within civil society and rational civilized state-owned.

Birth and bonding of the Basis of civil society arises as a reasonable way, in which individual individuality is transformed, and civil relations between all individuals, and even society as a universal start of civil society and the state itself, as well as the relationship between civil society and an individual person, civilian society and state apparatus.

Interaction with Individual

The main issue of civil society is the area of \u200b\u200bits contact with each individual individual - a citizen, an independent person.

According to Georg Hegel, civil society is part of the realization of the individual interests of any individual individual. Moreover, there is no freedom in civil society, because in civil society, the peaking of differential private purposes with the authorities, which has a comprehensive nature continuously presents.

Interaction with the state

Another important issue of civil society is its relationship with the state. The famous American enlightener Thomas Payne seems to be a civil society of good, and the state is evil. Civil society believes Thomas Paines the more developed, the less such society needs interference from the state.

It seems that civil society is a socio-organized structure, which is basically born beyond the boundaries of the state structures, but after birth, the state structures are also applied, since they are also created by citizens - individuals, that is, civil society particles.

Such elements of state power, as the main law - the Constitution, the selectivity of state bodies, the differentiation of the branches of the state-owned, the presence of many parties and the legality of the opposition, etc. They still do not represent a part of civil society, but they are hardened and are methods of its influence in relations with the state.

Main institutes of society

It should also be noted that the legislative consolidation of such institutions as inviolability of the personality, the equality of all before the law and the court, the independence of the judiciary, the freedom of speech is the most important guarantees in the relationship between civil society and the state.

Civil society is the basis of the legal state, and in the aggregate they constitute the links of the legal system. These concepts cannot exist separately from each other. The legal state cannot exist without the presence of a full-fledged civil society in it.

The concept of civil society considered in this article is one of the key concepts of the theory of state and law, which in turn is the basis of the legal system of society. If you are interested in other terms and definitions of jurisprudence, you can familiarize yourself with other articles posted on our website in the "Question-answer" section.

Modern ideas about civil society are the result of their long-term evolution in the history of socio-philosophical and political thought, which explains their diversity and inconsistency.

Rutkevich E. notes that in theoretical studies of civil society, two main interpretations of its essence can be distinguished, two different understanding of this concept. The most traditional, although rarely found now the point of view, according to which the "civil society" appears with the emergence of private property and the state. The concept of "civil society" is used here for the characteristics of a certain state of society and is identified with the state of a special type, in which the basic rights and freedoms of the individual are legally ensured and politically defended, which can be considered civilized, i.e. civil society. The term "civil society" is used in relation to the whole society as a whole. So G.V. Chevoserova, I.I. Kravchenko, V.P. The steps are interpreted by civil society as the interaction of the three sectors: power, business and non-commercial sector. The non-profit sector from this point of view is defined as part of a civil society in which its members are united to solve problems of social livelihoods, as well as for the formation of the material and spiritual basis necessary for the development of society. "Civil society is not only a conscious, secured by a citizen, this is a society that thinks the category of a separate person, his citizen," writes researcher I.I. Kravchenko.

The second interpretation of civil society is associated with the submission of it as a certain sphere of society - the sphere of non-government relations and structures. And here are various variations: an understanding of civil society as a society as a whole, as a special part of it, as the social characteristics of all its members, etc. So Marchenko M.N. Determines civil society as a society of people with broad rights who know them and know how to use them. The 1990 Philosophical Dictionary gives such a interpretation of the concept: "Civil society is a set of non-political relations in society: economic, social, moral, religious, national, etc." Civil society is a steady system of horizontal social relations, socio-political orientations and norms, "It" forms as it were for the gasket between the basis and the superstructure, production relations and the state, "researchers Y. Krasin and A. Galkin say.

The formation and development of civil society took several centuries. This process is not completed in any country or on a global scale. Similar to the fact that there are various interpretations of the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil society. It seems appropriate following, albeit the celestial scheme. The initial period is the prehistory of the formation of the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil society, its historical and philosophical prerequisites (from antiquity to the XVI-XVII centuries). The period in which the "aging" of this idea takes place. If the phrase "civil society" and is used during this period, then the meaning has completely different than today. Civil society here turns out to be an identical state or political society.

It is difficult to say when the term "civil society" was used for the first time. In one way or another, it is present in the literature of the European Middle Ages and the new time. Some authors believe that the concept of "civil society" is as ancient as the political science itself, ascending to the idea of \u200b\u200bPlatonovsky Society-State, Aristotelian Polis, Cicero civil society, etc. Others believe that for the first time this concept was used in 1767 G. A. Ferguson and interpreted him as a state of citizenship and a consequence of civilization. However, although many antiquity thinkers used the concept of "civil society" or other terms close to him on sound and meaning, the content invested in this concept by antique thinkers and modern authors is not identical. This is due to a different understanding of democracy, freedom, rights and obligations of citizens. In general, for antiquity, as for the Middle Ages, the absence of a clear distinction between society and the state is characteristic. Some changes in the understanding of civil society occur in the Renaissance, when attention is increasingly focused on a separate personality, the elimination of inequality, the approval of the law in the life of a sovereign state. But here is the person and society are still dissolved in the state.

Next, the initial one should naturally. This is the time of emergence and development of the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil society in the concepts of natural law and public contract of the XVII-XVIII centuries. This period is associated with the names of F. Bekon, G. Grotia, T. Gobbs, J. Locke, D. Yuma, B. Spinoza, J. Zh. Rousseau, Sh. Montesquieu and many other thinkers who expressed time needs in their work I have come down to the struggle of the absolute monarchy and the emerging bourgeois democracy. According to these concepts, the Company comes to replace the natural state, regardless of how the latter is understood: as lost paradise and the "golden age" (Rousseau) or as "war against all" (HBBS). The transition to the civil stattive is accompanied by the conclusion of a public contract, on the basis of which the people and the authorities are building their relationship. Schematically, the content of these concepts can be expressed as follows: a natural state - a public contract - civil, public, political condition. These concepts emphasized the principle of individual freedom, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe intrinsicness of a separate person, respect for his property and economic independence, integralness of his civil rights. In civil society, the stability, well-being, the progress of society as a whole is inextricably associated with the welfare of the personality, the interests and heritage of which are protected by the laws and the whole system of institutions and institutions ensuring the effectiveness of the law.

The third period in the development of the idea of \u200b\u200bcivil society was the "institutional period" (XIX - the first quarter of the 20th century), which is characterized by expanding the scope of influence, political recognition and approval of ideological domination concept of civil society in the conditions of bourgeois revolutions. Civil society from the theoretical structure turns into a special sphere of social reality, thus acquiring ontological status. This period begins with Hegel, which for the first time in the new time delimited the state and civil society.

Hegel celebrates three main steps of the Company's development: family, civil society and the state. Moreover, each higher form absorbs the previous one, so the separation of civil society and the state, he considers temporary, that is, the state as the highest level inevitably passes through the stage of civil society. Civil society, by Hegel, is the scope of private interest.

Individuals in this society are opposed to each other as well as their mercenary interests, but they cannot exist without each other because they are interrelated. In civil society, wrote a philosopher, "Every for himself is a goal, all the other essence for him is nothing. But without the relationship with others, he cannot achieve the volume of its goals; These other essence are because the means for the purposes of special. " Hegel civil society characterizes two: as an independent and as a fusion with the state dissolved in it. That is, in his theory, for the first time somehow, two directions in the understanding of civil society were united.

Following Hegel, Marx also considered civil society as a historical phenomenon, i.e. as a result and a certain level of historical development. However, the formation, development and operation of civil society was understood by Marx somewhat differently. Unlike Hegel, Marx believed that it was not an absolute spirit, and the family and civil society became premises of the state. And at the same time, like Hegel, Marx associated the emergence of civil society with the necessary economic premises in the form of freedom of private property. "The practical application of human rights to freedom is the right of a person for private ownership ... The human right to private property is freedom to dispose of property at its own discretion. This individual freedom, like this use, form the basis of civil society. " Like Hegel, Marx considered the dual consumption of the term "civil society": on the one hand, for the designation of civil society as such, which he identified with a certain step of social development, namely, a bourgeois society, and on the other - to denote one or another sphere societies, that is, a certain public organization.

The formation and development of civil society is associated with a significant change in social relations and structures, legal and government relations. In contrast to the preceding class and caste societies, civil society is based on the recognition of universal legal equality of people who have determined the qualitatively new position of the individual in society and the state.

The prevalence of horizontal relations based on legal equality and contractual principles of free people, relations, which are the essence of civil society, came to replace vertical feudal structures. If the beginning of the real being of civil society laid the adoption and approval of Bill on Rights (England, USA) or the Declaration of Human Rights and Citizen (France), then civil society itself is a society of equal people who are freely showing their identity, creative initiative, society of equal opportunities, freed from unnecessary prohibitions.

The formation of civil society was accompanied by a significant change in the state. An important role in the transition from the Civic Society to civilians was played in later Centralized national states, who sought to eliminate the diversity of rights that existed during the feudal fragmentation period. "A new state was called upon to make the process of the equation of public elements and turn the CLOSE Society with its numerous divisions into civil society built on the basis of equal legal capacity." From the feudal-specific states of the Middle Ages, the national states of the new time were distinguished by the concentration of power in the hands of a monarch, the creation of a state treasury, a centralized office and justice, a permanent army, the separation of the state from the estate, religious, ethnic and other social groups. In the era of the formation of civil society, the qualities of the modern representative state were to develop, significantly distinguish it from the states of classical and caste societies.

The representative state and equal to all the right was created during the development of private ownership, legal equality, on freedom of entrepreneurship and trade of society, and this was accompanied by stormy socio-economic processes. During the period of industrial coup and the formation of capitalism, the ruin of small and medium-sized owners and the development of the proletariat, the rapid enrichment of industrial, commercial and financial bourgeoisie occurred in society, which did not have social assistance systems, nor the mass and influential organizations of the working class, capable of dealing with industrialists for the balanced conditions Labor and wages. Economic crises and unemployment hurt the socioly disadvantaged layers of society. The relative and absolute impoverishment of the proletariat grew. His disparate performances were brutally suppressed by armed force.

The dominant political and legal ideology of the bourgeoisie of that period was liberalism, the requirement of non-interference of the state in particular - legal relations and implement them only protective functions. In the implementation of "positive functions", the state saw an obstacle to free entrepreneurship and competition, as well as an encroachment on the rights of taxpayers. Purely formal for a long time was the possibility of participation of the people (through elective representatives) in the activities of the state. Hegel has already seen the burden of civil society with contradictions of wealth and poverty. Marx made a bourgeois society a stern sentence based on the conclusion that capitalism by the middle of the XIX century. He became the brake of development of production and should be forcibly destroyed by a rapidly vigorious proletariat. However, the story judged differently. The working class movement created mechanisms to counter the egoism of entrepreneurs; Industrial society managed to generate a numerous middle class; The development of representative institutions of government created prerequisites for increasingly consistent in the current state policy not only the classological and egoistic interests of the bourgeoisie, but also the interests of other classes, as well as the whole society as a whole. Expanded and intensified the control of representative and judicial institutions for the activities of the central and local executive authorities; There were a circle of persons using electoral and other political rights.

Ageev M. Writes on this: "In the first half of the XIX century, 2/3 of the population did not have civil rights. In the middle of the century, the struggle for civil rights begins. The working class goes to the street and begins to demand that he can provide the same rights as Gentlemen. Interesting detail: The English of the XVII century, it would seem, does not have civil rights, while he considers himself a free British, that is, it is free in the sense that the police can come to him, she cannot take him to court and without providing evidence His guilt to judge. He has protection against arbitrariness. Starting from the XIII century, any commoner had to protect the law from encroachments and state. But by the middle of the XIX century, commoner discovers that it is not enough that he cannot trust the Gentlemen State Management. He also wants to participate in decision-making, he needs rights to participate in the political process. So began the struggle, which took about 60 years: from 1840 to the start of the new XX century ... during this period, the heroism of a small man manifested itself, who argued at every step that he had the right to become a subject of politics. " List of the XIX-XX centuries. It can be considered the beginning of a new phase of the development of civil society. By this time, the leading place in industry and trade was transferred from private entrepreneurs and merchants to industrial, shopping and financial corporations. In defense of democratic and social rights and freedoms are broad layers of employees, faces of free professions, science, culture and art figures, scientific intelligentsia, students, youth. The state is no longer only the "night guard". Extra place in its activities occupy such positive functions as the organization of social security, the management of folk education, health care, and other social functions. In the XX century The role of the state and in regulating economic relations - state control and intervention in the economy created the possibility of mitigating and constructing crisis phenomena. A large place in the legal systems of developed countries of the XX century. occupies social legislation. As a result of the expansion of the social activity of the state, the scope of public law increased.

Starting from 20-30s of the 20th century, civil society has become a symbol of a really working, meaningful democracy.