Definition

A civil society comprised of groups or organizations working in the interest of the citizens but operating
outside of the governmental and for-profit sectors. Organizations and institutions that make up civil
society include labor unions, non-profit organizations, churches, and other service agencies that provide
an important service to society but generally ask for very little in return.

Civil society is sometimes referred to as the civil sector, a term that is used to differentiate it from other
sectors that comprise a functioning society. For example, the United States is made up of three sectors:
the public sector, which is the government and its branches; the private sector, which includes
businesses and corporations; and the civil sector, which includes the organizations that act in the public's
interest but are not motivated by profit or government.

Examples of Civil Society at Work

In so many cases, it can be hard to know what organization falls into which sector and why. This is
because so many of these groups tend to work in collaboration with one another in order to serve the
public. Looking at some examples of what falls into a civil society and how they contribute, should help
to bring more clarity.

On a global scale, organizations from civil society play an incredibly important role. In the aftermath of a
disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, groups like the American Red Cross
and Habitat for Humanity were instrumental in serving those affected and helping them get back to
normal. These groups are considered Non-Governmental Aid Organizations (NGOs), which provide
assistance to people for little or no fee. NGOs fall into the category of civil society because they are not
operated by the government, are very often reliant on donations, and tend to be comprised of
volunteers.

Another example of civil society at work is civic groups, such as the Rotary Club or Kiwanis. In the United
States, these are groups that are made up of people from the community who volunteer their time in
order to raise money for community projects or needs. Though these groups tend to be much smaller
than NGOs, they are important because they represent the ordinary citizen contributing to the overall
well-being of their community
The Role of Civil Society in a Democracy

This section discusses the role of civil society in a democracy. It looks at the various services civil society
can provide to the government. It also looks at the other functions it may provides in keeping
government accountable and transparent. It introduces the importance of public information in a
democratic society and the important role of public associations as a communications link between
citizens and elected officials.

The Importance of Civil Society in a Democracy

The strength and pluralism of civil society, and its ability to unite in a broad front, has been a crucial
factor for shaping democratic change, according to Larry Diamond, Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover
Institution. Additionally, he states that «civil society performs many other crucial functions for
democratic development and consolidation.» These functions include:

limiting the power of the state more generally, including challenging the abuses of authority;

monitoring human rights and strengthening the rule of law;

monitoring elections and enhancing the overall quality and credibility of the democratic process;
educating citizens about their rights and responsibilities;

building a culture of tolerance and civic involvement;

incorporating marginal groups into the political process and enhancing the latter's responsiveness to
societal interest and need;

providing alternative means, outside the state, for communities to raise their level of material
development;

opening and pluralizing the flows of information; and

building a constituency for economic as well as political reforms.*

Diamond also explains that «where civil society organizations build up credibility and trust among
various political actors, they may be able to stabilize, even save, democracy in time of crisis.» He
describes a situation in the Central African Republic, for example, where an NGO, the Central African
League for Human Rights (LCDH), played a crucial mediating role during two Army uprisings in 1996.
During the first Army mutiny ... LCDH officials played the chief mediating role between the military
mutineers and the government «drafting protocols (to provide soldiers their back pay) and ultimately
persuading soldiers to lay down their arms.» A second, more serious, uprising ... took the form of a
military coup attempt, and threatened not only democracy but even civil war with its ethnic overtones,
internal military divisions, distribution of arms, demands for the resignation of the president and looting
and terrorizing of the civilian population. Although this uprising was ultimately put down by French
military intervention, its political resolution, which saw the society rally behind democracy, was catalyzed
by the LCDH's declared support for the regime and its mediation of negotiations between the regime
and the military rebels ...

The ability of the LCDH to perform this democracy-saving role owed to the «consistent neutrality and
objectivity» and widespread image of «moral credibility» it had established during the country's previous
five years of democratic struggle.*

How Civil Society Can Help Government

This handbook is designed for public associations involved in democratic development who, together
with other civil society stakeholders, can play an important supporting role for local, subject, oblast and
national governments of the Russian Federation.

Civil society encompasses most of a democratic country's population. It is you and I, non-elected people
- students, members of clubs, associations, churches and sports teams. In highly authoritarian countries,
however, the lines between government and civil society are blurred. There are well known situations
where civil society (that is, entities not connected to the government) barely exists at all.

Looking at the history of democratic development on the African continent, for example, Diamond warns
that

One of the greatest threats to democracy has been the intense politicization of social life. The state has
been so central and pervasive in distributing what people want that every major group has wanted
desperately to obtain access to or control over it. Virtually all major groups (political and civil) have been
oriented to what they could get from the political system, rather than to make it work fairly ... What is
vitally needed in these circumstances is some neutral, trusted umpires and monitors whose commitment
is unequivocally to the process, not to any particular outcome, party, faction group or leader.

When this is the case, the government is tasked to provide or control most or all services to its
constituents, a daunting task even for the richest of countries. Inevitably, resources are limited and
people often have to settle for nothing, or something that is less than what they want or need, but what
the government is able to offer them. Although there may be good reasons to believe the government
has the best interests of everyone at heart, the task of delivering the goods and services that people
need is a goal best shared with civil society.
Ability of Civil Society in Consolidating Democracy

As discussed earlier, for Bangladesh to achieve democratic consolidation, it is necessary to

ensure the combined effect of four major interacting factors, e.g., political institutionalization,

stable economic growth, formation of a democratic culture and a participatory civil society. It

has also been identified that a participatory civil society has four main tasks to realize democratic

consolidation. These are civic education on political and human rights, interest aggregation,

monitoring of state apparatus and economic society and ensuring better participation and

representation of all segments of society in political decision making. With the data and analysis

revealed through the present study, it is now possible to point out to a considerable extent the

ability and potentials of civil society in consolidating democracy in Bangladesh. On civic

education, the performance of the civil society is satisfactory so far. At the grass-roots level, it

has been found that CSOs are involved in some types of civic education and advocacy trainings

like developing group network, local representation and ventilation of grievances, providing

education and service in exercising legal and political rights, and raising social and political

awareness. However, such activities have been found to be performed at a far low rate than the

CSOs’ involvement in service providing functions like education, economic empowerment etc.

Though low in rate in comparison to other service providing functions, raising political

awareness has become a part of the grass-roots projects of civil society organizations,

particularly among NGOs as the donors have put emphasis on such activities. The high rate of

voters’ turn out (over 70%) during the 1996, and 2001 elections is said to be partly due to such

awareness programs. Naturally, this must be evaluated positively for the citizens of Bangladesh

and its democracy. However, as discussed in chapter five, awareness programs give the NGOs

Civil society in bangladesh

Many of the recent ideas and concepts of ‘good governance’ and ‘civil society’ in Bangladesh have been
generated by the international aid agencies and their ‘good governance’ policy agenda in the 1990s, but
there are also local meanings to the terms derived from the independence struggle and the construction
of a Bangladeshi state. This article aims to obtain a clearer analytical understanding of the processes and
institutions of civil society in Bangladesh that can develop workable strategy to improve governance for
helping the poor and moving beyond the patron–client relationships on which they have depended
historically. It also focuses attention and debate on those aspects of civil society which can enhance the
quality of governance and democracy by overcoming the western top-down approach; and can
strengthen the role of civil society organisations to further enhance their impact on better governance
for fair distribution of public goods and ensuring social justice for the poor.

Political violence

Political violence is the deliberate use of power and force to achieve political goals. Political violence
arises when states are refusing to acknowledge and protect the full citizenship status of its citizens.
Political violence is characterised by both physical and psychological acts aimed at injuring or
intimidating populations to achieve political goals. Examples include shootings or aerial bombardments;
detentions; arrests and torture; and home demolitions, hamper political representation of specific
ethic/religious groups, enslavement, forced eviction from homes and homelands and, statelessness.
Throughout the world, in the name of counter-terrorisms citizens in many countries are going through
displacement, ethnic cleansing, expulsion, forced removal, house demolition, slum clearance, land
expropriation, relocation and, resettlement with or without the provision of protection or access to legal
aid.

Political violence intertwines closely with economic violence because political status often determines
economic opportunity. The nature of political conflict has changed substantially over time and most
strategic analysts agree that in the second half of the 20th century, contemporary wars are less of a
problem of relations between states than a problem within states.Civil society and its potential to
contribute to democracy is determined not by any single factor.

conclusion

However, in combination of different factors like history, culture, external influence, regulatory

framework, it is the Political structures that influence the civil society most and simultaneously

the nature of democracy. This fact is evident not only in Bangladesh but other developing

democracies in Asia. Stable democracy may not necessarily facilitate strong civil society so as

strong civil society may not always lead to consolidated democracy. Rather, it is the political

parties strong voice of the vibrant civil society to contribute to democracy. Historical developments

have helped the political parties to emerge as such powerful and penetrative position as well

answers the reason why they have been able to succeed in their endeavor to divide and control

the social groups. Cultural traditions of vertical social relationship, explain the nature of political

cooptation that has taken place. Foreign donation has been accused of providing the necessary
resources for corruption and patronage. Political parties have control over different traditional,

professional groups, labor unions, chambers of commerce and so on at the central and meso

level. Link with the political parties has become the main source of power for the rural elites.

The NGOs have also turned into the new patrons to the poor. Moreover, such NGOs with

development projects nationwide have lost their unity influenced by partisan politics.