Category of «civil society» in domestic and foreign laws
Abstract
The paper investigates the category of «civil society» in the legislation of different countries of the world. Civil society continues to thrive as an object of study in post-communist Europe, as in most other regions of the world. Much of the literature on post-communist civil society, however, stresses its relative weakness, whether compared to other regions or to the high expectations of 1989–1991. This emphasis on weakness is especially notable given that so many observers at that time expected post-communist civil society to become unusually strong and vibrant. The conclusion that post-communist civil society is distinctively weak compared to other regions, however, needs more specification to be convincing.
In this article, author considers the extent to which it is accurate to refer to post-communist civil society as being relatively weak. Author starts by examining the variation within post-communist Europe, in the context of larger survey results that generally show a stark difference-or a «thick line» – between the Central European countries and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Analyzed the various points of view of foreign and domestic scientists. In the context of European integration task of civil society is to ensure the rights and freedoms of all social strata. The purpose of civil society is to create conditions conducive to the improvement of the socio-economic level of the people, to satisfy all the needs in the various spheres of social relations, which allow discovering and realizing the creative abilities of the individual. In civil society, there should be no exaggeration: the priority of the state in the face of public authorities, the anarchy in the management of public affairs, and nihilism in relation to the right. The conclusion about the necessity of adequate legal shell at special constitutional institutions, as well as the formation of equilibrium and balance in the civil society as one of the basic conditions for its existence and further modernization in terms of European integration.
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