Following are the features of Civil Society:
(1) Civil Society consists of non-governmental, voluntarily organized associations, organizations and institutions of the people.
(2) Civil Society is different from both the State and Society.
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(3) Civil Society is, however, neither opposed to state nor to society. On the contrary it works as a supplementary to each of the two. It, however, works in an organized and autonomous way.
(4) A healthy and efficient democratic system needs and integrates civil society, society and state.
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(5) Civil Society is constituted by the well-organised and active presence of a number of social, economic and cultural associations and groups of the people.
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(6) Both Liberalism and Marxism accept and advocate the role of Civil Society but each conceptualizes it in a different way.
Civil Society as the network of the associations and activities of all socio-economic- cultural non-governmental organizations of the people is deemed essential for the health, efficiency and progress of every democratic society.
In our country the Civil Society has been becoming more and more aware, alert and active. The continuous presence and successful working of Indian liberal democratic political system, the spread of literacy, the freedom of mass media, the existence of a very broad based decentralized local self-government system, the presence of a direct, homogeneous and democratic process of Political Socialisation and people’s full commitment to liberal democracy have been together helping the Civil Society to become increasingly active and strong.
The grant of Right to Information and operationalisation of the Right to Information Act has given an additional strength to the Civil Society. It has now come to be a powerful actor in the process of Indian democratic polity, economy and society.
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Civil Society is needed even in an authoritarian system because it can help the process of overthrow of the authoritarian regime and replace it with a democratic system. The Civil Society, particularly the Bar Association of Pakistan, played a key role in 2Q08 to compel General Parvez Musharraf to accept the demand for holding democratic and free elections for constituting a democratic government capable of developing Pakistan as a democratic state and society.
Since March 2008, Pakistan has been living with a democratic government and this development has been helping the Civil Society in Pakistan to become better organized and more active and efficient in playing its role in Pakistani society, economy and polity. It alone can help the Pakistani government in controlling the menace of terrorism.
Presently, (February 2011) several states of Africa, particularly Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and some others have been experiencing the increasing strengths of their civil societies. Strong opposition to authoritarian and dictatorial regimes is being demonstrated by the civil society in Egypt.
The civil society of Tunisia successfully secured its objective of overthrowing the forces of authoritarianism in their country and on 11th February 2011, the Egyptian Civil Society also successfully secured its objective of eliminating the authoritarian regime of Hosne Mubarak in their country. It is expected that it will now ensure the installation of a democratic regime in the country.
In fact, the civil society of each state has been trying to become more active and assertive in its society, polity and economy. It is indeed a very healthy development which is destined to give more strength to the movements for the restoration of democratic regimes in all authoritarian states of the world.
The current drive for the protection of Human Rights of all the people living in all parts of the globe and the environment protection movements will get more and more support and efforts from the CIVIL SOCIETY of each member of the international community.