La sociedad civil

Reflexiones e interpretaciones teóricas

Abstract

Recently, there has been a use and misuse of the term “civil society”, originally developed from the political science thinkers that in their time refer to as the diversity of people with a rank of citizens that act collectively in order to take steps in the public sphere as regards to matters outside governmental structures. Consequently, some authors point out that a pre requisite for democracy implies the existence of a civil society differentiated from political society since without it, there is no legitimacy for the State. In this essay,we take a look to the principal ideas beginning with the classics and authors such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Ferguson and even Tocqueville and Mill, were heavily debated later by Hegel and Marx and revisited and modified by Gramsci. Finally, we make a quick revision of the variations on the definition of the concept with modern thinkers and analysts from XI century up to our times and we conclude with a debate of the similarities and differences of civil society and social movements.