The Civil Society Reader

19. "The Virtue of Civil Society"

19 Edward Shils “The Virtue of Civil Society” Since Montesquieu, writers on politics have been aware that there might be an association of particular moral qualities and beliefs with particular political regimes . The association between virtue and republican governments, although duly recorded by students of Montesquieu’s thought, has however been passed over. The disposition to participate in politics, the sense of political potency or impotence , certain traits of personality such as could be summarized in the term “authoritarian personality,” et cetera, have all been studied by theorists of democracy. Virtue, or public spirit or civility, has been neglected. I would like to take up Montesquieu’s theme once more. I wish to enquire into the place of virtue or what I call civility in the liberal democratic order, which Montesquieu referred to as the republican type of government. Latterly the term “civil society ” has come to be used very loosely as equivalent to “liberal democratic society.” They are not entirely the same and the difference between them is significant. In civility lies the difference between a well-ordered and a disordered liberal democracy. Civil Society The idea of civil society is the idea of a part of society which has a life of its own, which is distinctly different from the state, and which is largely in autonomy from it. Civil society lies beyond the boundaries of the family and the clan and beyond the locality; it lies short of the state. This idea of civil society has three main components. The first is a part of society comprising a complex of autonomous institutions—economic, religious, intellectual and political—distinguishable from the family, the clan, the locality and the state. The second is a part of society possessing a particular complex of relationships between itself and the state and a distinctive set of institutions which safeguard the separation of state and civil society and maintain effective ties between them. The third is a widespread pattern of refined or civil manners. The first has been called civil society; sometimes the entire inclusive society which has those specific properties is called civil society. Regarding the separation of state from civil society, that part of society with which we are concerned here consists of individual and collective activities which are not guided primarily by the rules of primordial collectivities and which are also not directed by the state. These activities have rules of their own, both formal and informal. The state lays down laws which set limits to the actions of individuals and collectivities but within those limits, which in a civil society are ordinarily wide, the actions of individuals and collectivities are freely chosen or are performed in accordance with explicit agreement among the participants or are based on calculations of individual or collective interest or on the rules of the constituent collectivity. It is in this sense that civil society is separate from the state. Civil society is not totally separate form the state. It would not be part of the society as a whole if it were totally separated, just as the family, different and distinctive though it is, is not totally separated from civil society and the state. The state lays down laws which set the outermost boundaries or the autonomy of the diverse spheres and sectors of civil society; so, civil society from its side lays down limits on the actions of the state. Civil society and the state are bound together by the constitution and by traditions which stress the obligations of each to the other as well as their rights vis-à-vis each other. The rights of individuals and collectivities with respect to each other are provided by the constitutions and the laws and traditions. A civil society is a society of civility in the conduct of the members of the society towards each other. Civility enters into conduct between individuals and between individuals towards society. It likewise regulates the relations of collectivities towards each other, the relations between collectivities and the state and the relations of individuals with the state. Revival of the Concept In recent years, the term “civil society” has appeared relatively suddenly upon the intellectual scene. It has nevertheless hovered in numerous variants on the edge of discussions of society every since antiquity; sometimes it entered more centrally. It was a term of ancient jurisprudence. It was a fluctuating presence in medieval political philosophy where it was distinguished from ecclesiastical institutions. In the seventeenth century it was contrasted...