The interests of civil society are expressed. Is there a civil society in modern Russia? The history of the emergence of civil society

Civil society - a set of organizations of citizens, designed to control the state in its observance of the social contract. The concept of "civil society" was developed by European philosophers G. Leibniz, T. Hobbes, J. Locke, C. Montesquieu, T. Payne, K. Marx and others during the 17th - 19th centuries. As a result, several features were identified that characterize civil society

The presence of many associations, organizations of citizens, including political parties
The relative independence of these organizations from the central government
Sense of civic responsibility of the people
civilized behavior
Active citizenship

What is a "social contract"?

A social contract is an agreement between citizens and the state about their rights and obligations. The people, who, according to the authors of the theory of the Social Contract, Hobbes, Locke, Diderot, Rousseau and others, are the highest power in the country, delegate certain powers to the state, undertake to comply with the laws established by the state, but, in turn, have the right to observe, control and influence the activity states.
The meaning of concluding an agreement between society and the state is the acquisition by citizens of guarantees for the security of themselves and their property, backed up by the power and authority of the state. The terms of the social contract cannot be violated either by the authorities or by the population without the risk of plunging society either into tyranny or anarchy.

The social contract is not a certain paper with signatures and seals, but such a structure of society, when the people and the authorities are partners in building a comfortable, safe, calm, free life for people

Theories of the contract between society and the state were developed by thinkers of the Enlightenment. In practice, they were put into practice by the US Declaration of Independence, created by T. Jefferson and adopted at the Second Continental Congress in 1776: “We hold the following truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments have been instituted among the people, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. If, however, a given form of government becomes disastrous for this purpose, then the people have the right to change or destroy it and establish a new government based on such principles and with such an organization of power as, in the opinion of this people, can most contribute to its security and happiness.

“To secure these rights, governments have been established among the people, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed”

Conditions for the existence of "civil society"

Market economy
A high sense of responsibility of citizens for themselves and their families
High consciousness, allowing you to comply with the laws of the hostel without coercion
The existence in society of state-guaranteed rights and freedoms of the individual: freedom of speech, press, rallies, meetings
Availability of independent media
The existence of the right of citizens to choose public authorities, control their work, change them if they are dissatisfied with it

Elements of "civil society" in Russia

Economics of market relations
Existence of political parties
The presence of non-political organizations of citizens:
- professional,
- sports,
- national cultural,
- confessional
Availability of independent media

Civil society

Civil society- this is the sphere of self-manifestation of free citizens and voluntarily formed associations and organizations, independent of direct interference and arbitrary regulation by state power. According to the classical scheme of D. Easton, civil society acts as a filter of the demands and support of society to the political system. A developed civil society is the most important prerequisite for building a state of law and its equal partner. The Russian Constitution of 1993 does not use the term "civil society", and of all the institutions of civil society, only the bar is mentioned in federal legislation.

Civil society is one of the phenomena of modern society, a set of social formations (groups, collectives) united by specific interests (economic, ethnic, cultural, and so on) that are implemented outside the sphere of state activity and allow controlling the actions of the state machine.

Civil society is a concept that denotes the totality of non-political relations in society: economic, social, moral, religious, national and others.

Civil society can also be defined as a set of social relations outside the framework of power-state structures, but not outside the framework of the state as such.

Signs of civil society

The presence in society of free owners of the means of production;
Developed democracy;
Legal protection of citizens;
A certain level of civic culture;
the most complete provision of human rights and freedoms;
self-management;
competition in the formation of their structures and individual groups of persons;
free-forming public opinion and pluralism;
legitimacy.

The concept of civil society

In the social sciences, the following main approaches to defining the essence of civil society are distinguished: as opposition to anarchy; as opposed to the church; as a complex of social relations opposed to the state; as a concrete phenomenon of Western civilization. The history of the development of its concept in Western social and political thought testifies to the difficulties of the formation of civil society.

T. Hobbes, English philosopher:

Civil society is a union of individuals, a collective in which all its members acquire the highest human qualities. The state prevails over civil society.

J. Locke, English philosopher:

Civil society is a political society, that is, a public sphere in which the state has its own interests.

C. Montesquieu, French philosopher:

Civil society is a society of enmity of people with each other, which, in order to stop it, is transformed into a state.

T. Payne, American educator:

Civil society is a blessing, and the state is a necessary evil. The more perfect civil society, the less it needs regulation by the state.

G. Hegel, German philosopher:

Civil society is a sphere for the realization of especially private goals and interests of an individual. There is no true freedom in civil society, since there is always a contradiction between private interests and power, which is universal in nature.

K. Marx, F. Engels, German economists and sociologists:

Civil society is the sphere of material, economic life and activity of people. It is it that is primary in relation to the state, civil life as the sum

2.1. Structure and basic elements.

Modern civil society has the following structure:

· 1. Voluntarily formed primary communities of people (family, cooperation, association, economic corporations, public organizations, professional, creative, sports, ethnic, confessional and other associations).

· 2. The totality of non-state non-political relations in society: economic, social, family, spiritual, moral, religious and others: this is the production and private life of people, their customs, traditions, mores.

· 3. The sphere of self-manifestation of free individuals and their organizations, protected by laws from direct interference in it by the state authorities.

Thus, the structure of civil society in developed countries is a wide network of public relations, various voluntary organizations of citizens, their associations, lobbying and other groups, municipal communes, charitable foundations, interest clubs, creative, cooperative associations, consumer, sports societies, public - political, religious and other organizations and unions. All of them express the most diverse social interests in all spheres of society.

· A concrete analysis of the main elements of civil society follows from this.

· Firstly, the economic organization of civil society is a society of civilized market relations. The market as a kind of "component" of economic freedom is impossible without the development of independent entrepreneurial activity aimed at systematic profit.

· The second structural element of civil society is its social organization. In market conditions, it is very complex, which primarily reflects the differences between individual social groups. Three main groups of the population of civil society can be distinguished: employees, entrepreneurs and disabled citizens. Ensuring a balanced balance of economic interests and material possibilities of these groups is an important direction of social policy.

· Employees need to create economic, social and legal conditions for efficient work, fair pay for their work, broad participation in profits.

· With regard to entrepreneurs, measures should be taken to guarantee them the freedom of all forms of economic activity, to stimulate their investment in the development of efficient, profitable production of goods and services. As for disabled citizens, they should be provided with targeted social protection, social security and service standards should be defined that will allow them to maintain an acceptable standard of living.

· The third structural element of civil society is its socio-political organization. It cannot be identified with a state-political organization, with state management of society. On the contrary, the real democracy of civil society as the basis for ensuring the real freedom of the individual becomes possible precisely when society, acquiring the qualities of civil, legal, develops its own, non-state socio-political mechanisms of self-regulation and self-organization. In accordance with this, the so-called political institutionalization of civil society takes place, that is, society organizes itself with the help of such institutions as political parties, mass movements, trade unions, women's, veterans', youth, religious organizations, voluntary societies, creative unions, fraternities, foundations, associations and other voluntary associations of citizens created on the basis of their common political, professional, cultural and other interests. An important constitutional basis for the political institutionalization of civil society is the principle of political and ideological pluralism, a multi-party system. Civil society is alien to political and ideological monopoly, which suppresses dissent and does not allow any other ideology, except for the official, state, no other party except the ruling one - the “party of power”. An important condition for ensuring political and ideological pluralism, and, consequently, the institutionalization of civil society, is the freedom to organize and operate the media.

· This, however, does not mean the identity of individual freedom and the legal status of a citizen. Freedom, as already noted, has such a property as normativity. From this it follows, on the one hand, that a person acquires freedom as a result of his ability to obey its normative requirements (obligatory rules of conduct). On the other hand, this means that the external form of the existence of individual freedom is social norms that determine the measure, the permissible boundaries of freedom. And only in the most important areas, which have an increased significance for society or for the individual himself, the measure of freedom is determined and normalized by the state itself. This is done with the help of legal norms, laws. Laws, if they are of a legal nature, are in this respect, according to Marx, "the bible of freedom." The main legal means of securing, recognizing by the state the achieved freedom of the individual is the constitution.

· At the same time, the rights and freedoms themselves, including constitutional ones, on the one hand, are determined by the level of development of civil society, the maturity of its economic, social, socio-political organization; after all, civil society is a social environment where most of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen are realized. On the other hand, the development and deepening of the most important characteristics of civil society as a legal, democratic society, as a society of genuine freedom and social justice largely depend on the fullness of the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, the degree of their guarantee, the sequence of implementation. In this regard, human and civil rights are an instrument for the self-development of civil society, its self-organization. This dual relationship finds its consolidation at the state-legal, legal level, when the Constitution and other laws establish the responsibility not only of a citizen to the state, but also of the state to the individual.

The state and law are a product of the development of society. This explains their interrelation and interdependence. Each of these concepts has distinctive features. Throughout the history of the development of civilization, the best minds of mankind, by virtue of the era they are experiencing, have tried, in the form of teachings or practical activities, to create a society of justice and equal opportunities. The world experience of revolutions, social discoveries, democracy, new systems of social management - accumulated literally bit by bit. Its reasonable use, taking into account systemic conditions in the form of state forms and national systems of law, is the guarantor of the constant progress of mankind in the present and future.

However, as noted by V.V. Putin "we will not be able to solve any of the urgent tasks facing our country without ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens, without the effective organization of the state itself, without the development of democracy and civil society."

YES. Medvedev, while in office of the President of the Russian Federation, also considered “creating conditions for the development of civil society” as one of the tasks of the state.

Thus, one of the goals of the Russian reforms is to build a civil society. But few people can really explain what it is. The idea put forward sounds attractive, but is unclear to the vast majority of the population, including officials of the state apparatus.

N.I. Matuzov notes that “behind the epithet “civil”, despite its conventionality, there is an extensive and rich content. The meaning of this phenomenon is multifaceted and ambiguous, it is interpreted by scientists in different ways.

The purpose of this test is to study the basic concepts of civil society and analyze its state in modern Russia.

Based on the goal, the tasks of the work are:

Studying the basic concepts of civil society;

Consideration of the concept of "civil society" at the present stage of development of the theory of state and law;

Identification of problems and trends in the formation of civil society in modern Russia.

The work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography.

1. Basic concepts of civil society

1.1. Concepts of civil society in antiquity and the Middle Ages

In ancient philosophical thought, the category of "civil society" first appears in Cicero, but it seems possible to distinguish it within the texts of Plato and Aristotle. The ideas expressed in antiquity formed the basis for all subsequent concepts, which in essence are their development, systematization or criticism.

In the “State” of Plato, a division of the categories “private” and “public” appears, referring to the family and the state, respectively. Nevertheless, in Plato's model, society, the state and civil society are united, civil society is inseparable from both the state and the pre-state state of society. At the same time, it acts not as a kind of “link”, not as a property acquired over time, but as an essential condition for the existence of a community of people. Thus, "civil society" is identified with society in its modern sense and the foundation is laid for its separation from the state.

Aristotle's "Politics" confirms the separation of "family" and "society", formally equating the latter with the "state", but at the same time leaving the possibility of interpretation. The family is the “primary cell of society”, subordinate to the state and at the same time the purpose of its existence. The state is defined as "an association of equal citizens living in a polis", or as "a society formed from several villages", which formed the pre-Enlightenment idea that the state consists of several societies identified with cities. Aristotle calls private property the basis of society and the state, and its protection is the goal. According to Aristotle, civil society is a society of citizens, that is, there is no difference between society and civil society.

In "On the State" of Cicero, in addition to the classical formulations of the key concepts for civil society (citizen, rule of law, private property), he proposed the terms "civil community" and "civil society". Developing the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, Cicero captures the emergence of a "civil community" with the advent of interpersonal communication, and this process does not necessarily coincide with the emergence of the state and the status of a citizen in a person who is a member of a civil community. Following Aristotle, the "civil community" is also understood as the city-state, while the state is a collection of cities. According to Cicero, the state is a thing that is in use by the civil community. Thus, for the first time, the "civil community" (in modern transcription - civil society) is separated from the state and called the fundamental principle, and the state is only a superstructure. The concepts of "society of citizens" and "civil society" characterize a society in which the law serves as a public regulator and a link between its members, that is, as a synonym for "rule of law". Thus, the basis for the separation of "civil society" from "society" was created. The concept of Cicero is the highest stage in the development of ancient state thought.

In the Middle Ages, "civil society" did not attract the attention of scholars, being limited to fragmentary statements, as a rule, borrowed from ancient texts. Thus, A. Augustine in "The City of God" writes about "civil society" as an association higher than the family, a set of families, all of which are citizens. Aristotle's thoughts are repeated that the state is an association of cities, and the city is a civil society. The main contribution of the Middle Ages to the theory of civil society was the humanistic ideas of freedom and their dissemination in the minds of people. Augustine considers virtue to be the driving force of civil society, the condition for its viability is the harmony and proportionality of the groups of people included in it. "Society" from "civil society" is still not separated.

1.2. Concepts of civil society of modern times

In modern times, T. Hobbes, D. Locke and J. Rousseau formulated and finally separated from the state the concept of "civil society" as a system that ensures the realization of individual rights. The concepts of this time repeat each other, therefore we will consider in detail only the classical theory of D. Locke.

In "On Two Types of Government" D. Locke considered civil society as a sphere opposed to the natural state of things. The purpose of civil society is to preserve property; civil society exists where and only where each of its members has renounced the natural, traditional power, transferring it into the hands of society. Thus, civil society is opposed and even antagonistic to the state of nature, i.e. traditions.

Since J. Locke proceeded from the contractual theory of the origin of the state, he justified the right of the people to resist the state if it neglects its rights and interests. He argued that by concluding a social contract, the state receives from people exactly as much power as is necessary and sufficient to achieve the main goal of the political community - creating conditions for everyone to ensure their civic interests, and cannot encroach on natural rights. a person - for life, freedom, property, etc.

Although J. Locke did not yet distinguish between society and the state, his distinction between the rights of the individual and the rights of the state was of great importance for the formation of the modern concept of civil society.

1.3. Concepts of civil society by Hegel and Marx

According to Hegel, civil society is primarily a system of needs based on private property, as well as religion, family, estates, government, law, morality, duty, culture, education, laws and the mutual legal relations of subjects arising from them.

From a natural, uncultured state, people must enter into civil society, for only in the latter do legal relations have validity.

Hegel wrote: "Civil society has been created, however, only in the modern world...". In other words, civil society was opposed to savagery, underdevelopment, and uncivilization. And by it was meant, of course, the classical bourgeois society.

The main element in Hegel's doctrine of civil society is a person - his role, functions, position. According to Hegelian views, the individual is a goal for himself; its activities are aimed primarily at satisfying their own needs (natural and social). In this sense, she represents a kind of egoistic individual. At the same time, a person can satisfy his needs only by being in certain relationships with other people. “In civil society, everyone is a goal for himself, everything else is nothing for him. However, without a relationship with others, he cannot achieve his goals in their entirety.

The importance of relationships between subjects is also emphasized by Hegel in property relations: “Most property in civil society rests on a contract, the formalities of which are firmly defined.”

Thus, Hegel put an end to the distinction between the three main social forms: the family, civil society and the state.

Civil society in the interpretation of Hegel is a system of needs mediated by labor, based on the domination of private property and the general formal equality of people. Civil society and the state are independent but interacting institutions. Civil society together with the family constitute the basis of the state. In the state, the general will of the citizens is represented. Civil society is a sphere of special, private interests of separate individuals.

From the Hegelian concept came the ideas of K. Marx, who understands civil society as a form of economic relations adequate to a certain level of development of the productive forces. The family and civil society are the driving forces that transform themselves into a state.

Marx in his early works quite often used the concept of civil society, denoting the organization of the family, estates, classes, property, distribution, the real life of people, emphasizing their historically determined nature, determined by economic and other factors.

K. Marx and F. Engels saw the basic principle of the materialistic understanding of history “in the fact that, proceeding from the material production of immediate life, consider the actual process of production and understand the form of communication associated with this mode of production and generated by it - i.e. civil society at its various stages - as the basis of all history; then it is necessary to depict the activities of civil society in the sphere of public life, and also to explain from it all the various theoretical generations and forms of consciousness, religion, philosophy, morality, etc. and trace the process of their emergence on this basis.

Civil society, according to Marx, covers all the material communication of individuals within a certain stage of development of the productive forces. This "material communication" includes the entire spectrum of market relations: private enterprise, business, commerce, profit, competition, production and distribution, capital flows, economic incentives and interests. All this has a certain autonomy, is characterized by its internal connections and patterns.

Critically analyzing human rights, K. Marx pointed out that they are nothing but the rights of a member of civil society. Among them, K. Marx, like G. Hegel, emphasizes the right to individual freedom. This individual freedom, as well as the enjoyment of it, form the basis of civil society. In civil society, each individual is a certain closed complex of needs and exists for the other only insofar as they mutually become a means for each other.

1.4. Modern concepts of civil society

According to domestic researchers of civil society (N. Boichuk, A. Gramchuk, Y. Pasko, V. Skvorets, Yu. Uzun, A. Chuvardinskiy), the modern liberal model of civil society is most fully and systematically described by E. Gellner in “Conditions of Freedom. Civil Society and Its Historical Rivals (1994).

Consistently approaching the definition of civil society, Gellner gives him the following definitions: “... civil society is a combination of various non-governmental institutions that are strong enough to serve as a counterbalance to the state and, without interfering with it, play the role of peacemaker and arbiter between the main interest groups, restrain its desire to to the dominance and atomization of the rest of society". Civil society is what "denies both suffocating communalism and centralized authoritarianism."

Ultimately, Gellner states: “Civil society is based on the separation of politics from the economy and from the social sphere (that is, from civil society in the narrow sense of the word, which is a social residue obtained from the subtraction of the state as such), which is combined with the principle of non-intervention of those in power into social life."

The separation of politics from economics, according to Gellner, distinguishes civil society from the traditionalist one. At the same time, the economic component is decentralized and prioritized, while the political component is vertical with centralized coercion. In contrast to the one-dimensionality and economic holism of Marxism, modern civil society is characterized by at least three-axis stratification - economic, political and cultural (social). The classic triad that characterizes modern society is confirmed: the economy of transnational capitalism, the ideology of neoliberalism and the electoral system of democracy. Following Aristotle, Locke and Hegel, the position on the right of private property as the basis of civil society is developing. It is based on the understanding of civil society as a form of production relations, first proposed by Marx. It can equally be argued that the basis of civil society is that sense of civic duty and tolerance, which is the basis of the modern type of man, called by him "modular".

Gellner believes that the essence of civil society lies in the formation of relationships that are effective and at the same time are flexible, specialized, instrumental. Indeed, a significant role here was played by the transition from status relationships to contractual relationships: people began to comply with the contract, even if it does not correlate in any way with a ritually formalized position in society or belonging to a particular social group. Such a society is still structured - it is not some kind of sluggish, atomized inert mass - but its structure is mobile and easily amenable to rational improvement. Answering the question of how institutions and associations can exist that balance the state and at the same time do not fetter their members, we must say: this is possible mainly due to the modularity of man.

Gellner associates civil society with a new type of mass consciousness, which he called "modular man" - capable of occupying positions in society other than those prescribed by the state.

The appearance of the "modular man", according to Gellner, became possible due to the spread of means of processing and transmitting information. In addition to the rejection of traditionalist monism, the “modular man” is inherently opposed to those changes that threaten his own existence.

The modern neo-liberal point of view on civil society, adapted to the current political situation, is well expressed by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe T. Hammarberg, who stated that in the post-Soviet space “the role of civil society in human rights projects and the protection of the fundamental values and rights of minorities is extremely important” . Hammarberg also noted that civil society, neither in the CIS countries nor in Europe, has any mechanisms whatsoever that control its competence and formalize its legitimacy. Thus, modern Europe is interested in civil society solely as a means of controlling power.

The most important feature of the Western concept of civil society is the organic combination of this concept with the idea of tolerance, which can be characterized by the following principles:

A truly tolerant person believes that everyone has the right to defend, with the help of rational arguments, his understanding of what is good for individuals, regardless of whether this understanding is true or false, and also to strive to convince others that he is right;

No tolerant person will tolerate actions that destroy the inner right of choice of himself and others;

Evil must be tolerated only in those cases where its suppression creates equal or greater obstacles to the goods of the same order, or obstacles to all goods of a higher order.

2. The concept of "civil society" at the present stage

The Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language gives the following definition of civil society: "a society of free and equal citizens, relations between which in the sphere of economy and culture develop independently of state power" .

However, there are no legislatively fixed definitions of civil society at the international and national levels, and there should not be, just as there cannot be a single approach to the concept of democracy.

So yes. Medvedev believes that “civil society is an integral institution of any state. Feedback Institute. An organization of people who are out of office, but actively participating in the life of the country. From this statement it follows that the degree of independence of society, as well as the degree of independence of the state, must necessarily be in a state of dynamic equilibrium, which provides for consideration of mutual interests.

For the emergence and development of civil society, it is necessary for the state to create real conditions for the population and opportunities for self-expression in the form of granting rights and freedoms, as well as guarantees (political, legal, organizational, economic, ideological and others) for their implementation.

A truly civil society can be considered such a community of people where the optimal ratio of all spheres of public life has been achieved: economic, political, social and spiritual.

With the existence of civil society, the state acts as a spokesman for the compromise of various forces in society. The economic basis of civil society is the right to private property. Otherwise, a situation is created when every citizen is forced to serve the state on the terms that the state power dictates to him.

In fact, the interests of minorities in civil society are expressed by various social, political, cultural and other unions, groups, blocs, parties. They can be both public and independent. This enables individuals to exercise their rights and obligations as citizens of a democratic society. Through participation in these organizations, political decision-making can be influenced in a variety of ways.

The generally recognized typical features of a highly developed civil society are:

The presence of property at the disposal of people (individual or collective ownership);

The presence of a developed structure of various associations, reflecting the diversity of interests of various groups and strata, a developed and ramified democracy;

A high level of intellectual, psychological development of members of society, their ability to self-activity when included in one or another institution of civil society;

The functioning of the rule of law.

Civil society includes the totality of interpersonal relations that develop outside the framework and without state intervention. It has a ramified system of public institutions independent of the state, realizing daily individual and collective needs.

In civil society, a single set of fundamental, axial principles, values, and orientations are being developed that guide all members of society in their lives, no matter what place they occupy in the social pyramid. This complex, constantly improving and renewing, holds society together and determines the main characteristics of both its economic and political subsystems. Economic and political freedoms are considered a form of manifestation of the more fundamental freedom of a person as a member of society, as a valuable and self-sufficient person.

A.V. Melekhin notes: “Civil society can be imagined as a kind of social space in which people interact as individuals independent of each other and of the state. This is the sphere of social relations that exist outside, in addition to, and often in opposition to, more stringent rules established by the state in various areas.

The basis of civil society is a civilized, amateur, full-fledged individual, therefore, it is natural that the essence and quality of society depend on the quality of its constituent individuals. The formation of civil society is inextricably linked with the formation of the idea of individual freedom, the self-worth of each individual.

The emergence of civil society led to the distinction between human rights and the rights of a citizen. Human rights are provided by civil society, and the rights of a citizen - by the state. It is obvious that the most important condition for the existence of civil society is a person who has the right to self-realization. It is affirmed through the recognition of the right of individual and personal freedom of each person.

Speaking about the signs indicating the existence of a civil society, it is necessary to take into account the following prerequisite: they must reflect the mentality of the population, the system of economic relations, morality and religion existing in society, and other behavioral factors.

Thus, civil society involves the active manifestation of the creative potential of the individual in all areas of social relations, and the main features of such a society are the economic, political and spiritual freedom of the individual.

The presence of private property contributes to the creation of financial and economic conditions for the formation of civil society structures that are autonomous in relation to state power.

The main political sign of a civil society is the functioning of a rule of law state in such a society. The rule of law, as researchers note, is actually the political hypostasis of civil society, correlating with each other as form and content. Their unity embodies the integrity of society as a system in which direct and reverse connections find a normal and progressive manifestation.

In the spiritual sphere, civil society is characterized by the priority of universal human values. One of the main ideals of civil society (as well as the rule of law) is the desire to create conditions for the most complete disclosure of the creative potential and intellect of a person. It is from here that the growing importance of the rights and freedoms of the individual stems.

3. The realities of the formation of civil society in modern Russia

Civil society has not been clearly reflected in the Russian Constitution, which does not even contain this term, although certain elements of civil society are still enshrined in it (private property, market economy, human rights, political pluralism, freedom of speech, multi-party system, etc.).

At the beginning of the XXI century. Russia tried to embark on the path of building a civil society. However, this process has now stopped.

Civil society, in contrast to political society with its vertical structures of hierarchical relationships, necessarily presupposes the existence of horizontal, powerless ties, the deep underlying basis of which is the production and reproduction of material life, the maintenance of the life of society. The functions of civil society are carried out by its structural elements - amateur and voluntary civil associations. It is in this kind of associations that a civil active person "maturing".

Until recently, civil movements in Russia experienced a real boom. More and more new professional, youth, ecological, cultural and other associations arose; however, their quantitative growth outpaced the qualitative growth. Some organizations appeared as a response to momentary problems (for example, unions of deceived depositors), others from the very beginning were openly biased political in nature (“Women of Russia”). Control over such associations by the state was greatly facilitated, and many of the civil initiatives, becoming the subject of political bargaining, lost their alternativeness and generally significant character. Thus, the main features of civil society were leveled: non-political nature and alternativeness to the political system.

YES. Medvedev, in his Address to the Federal Assembly on December 22, 2011, noted: “Our civil society has strengthened and become more influential, the social activity of public organizations has increased significantly, this was also confirmed by the events of recent weeks. I consider the increase in the activity of non-profit organizations one of the key achievements of recent years. We have done a lot to support them, to develop and stimulate volunteerism in the country. And today there are more than 100 thousand non-profit organizations in our country. It has become easier to register them, and there have been significantly fewer inspections of the activities of NGOs. However, already in July 2012, Federal Law No. 121-FZ of July 20, 2012 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Regarding the Regulation of the Activities of Non-Profit Organizations Acting as Foreign Agents” was adopted, which served to strengthen control over non-profit organizations with side of the state.

Based on the concept of civil society, in parallel with its formation, the process of development of a legal democratic state should go on, when the individual and state power form equal subjects of law. The gradual development of the rule of law, which is a condition for the existence of a democratic system, contains not only the traditional division of power into three branches, but also a complementary division between civil society and the state. In this respect, the Russian state, burdened with authoritarian traits, can hardly be called legal and democratic. In Russia, all branches of state power inefficiently fulfill their role function, including the legislative one, constantly changing, or even not at all adopting the laws necessary for society.

According to the English political scientist R. Sakwa, the incomplete democratization in Russia has given rise to a kind of hybrid that combines democracy and authoritarianism, which he called the "regime system of government" . The regime system, by narrowing the role of parliament and the judiciary, was able to largely protect itself from the surprises of the electoral struggle and protect itself from the control of civil institutions. The interaction of the state with "society" under the regime system is based on the principle of domination and subservience. The structural elements of society here are a set of subjects who must be kept within the framework of social control by those in power.

Despite the fact that the majority of property has ceased to be state property, it is still used not very efficiently and not always in the interests of the state and society. The economic policy of the state has not yet consistently stimulated the formation of preconditions for an increase in the size of the middle class. Sufficiently high inflation, a strong tax pressure that restricts entrepreneurial activity, the lack of developed private ownership of land - do not allow to make serious investments in production, in land, do not contribute to the formation of a mature citizen with inalienable rights and obligations.

The basis of civil life is formed by enterprises of medium and small businesses. They are either absorbed by large financial-industrial groups merged with the state apparatus, or die under the influence of tax and financial pressure from state power. As a result, the competitive sector of the small economy is destroyed, and instead of the main principles of civil life (competition, individualization and cooperation), a monopoly of economic and political power is established. The most negative consequence of the decline in the regulatory function of the state in the economic sphere is the formation of a significant gap in the income level of a small group of people and the majority of the poor. In the conditions of modern Russia, in the presence of a huge budgetary sphere, when the only source of existence is wages, it is not yet possible to talk about the mass nature of civil relations.

The financial dictatorship makes the independent mass media more and more biased, so often the “voice” of civil society is almost not heard.

In addition, in its essence, civil society has an ethno-regional character. The gap in the degree of maturity and in the level of development of civil relations in different regions is too large (it is enough to compare, for example, life in megacities such as Moscow and existence in the outback of Primorsky Krai or Siberia).

The Russian elite is in a state of "dysfunctionality". Although it is undeniable that there are many influential supporters of the democratic functioning of state institutions in the ruling political elite, today it is not able to aggregate the interests of even the active part of civil society.

One of the obstacles to the creation of a civil society in the conditions of the Russian state is the high level of corruption and crime. Widespread corruption has a negative impact on the acceptance by the population of the values of democracy as a system of governing society.

CONCLUSION

The concept of "civil society" arose long before the formation of modern neo-liberal theories that serve as the basis for conventional rhetoric. The first concepts of the state, civic activity, self-organization of citizens and, ultimately, civil society appeared in antiquity. Elements of civil society are inherent in all existing state formations, starting from the ancient policy, and were present even in rigidly stratified communities. Therefore, the understanding of civil society as a modern Euro-Atlantic cultural phenomenon, which is actively introduced into the public consciousness with the help of the mass media, is very simplified and politicized.

The formation and development of civil society took several centuries. This process has not been completed either in our country or globally.

Laws designed to give the formation of civil society in the country a civilized character must comply with a certain set of necessary principles of interaction between society and the state, developed by world and domestic democratic theory and practice.

These include:

Ensuring human rights in full, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international legal norms;

Ensuring voluntary civil cooperation through freedom of association;

Ensuring a full-fledged public dialogue, ideological pluralism and tolerance for different views;

Legal protection of civil society and its structures;

Responsibility of the state to the citizen;

Conscious self-restraint of power.

The legal base of civil society should be a system of meaningfully interconnected blocks of legislation that reflects the federal nature of the state structure of Russia, the problems of relations between citizens and the state in the economic and social spheres and creates the legal foundations for the activities of civil society institutions.

The degree of development of civil society institutions is also determined by the level of legal culture of the population, its readiness to observe the principle of legality in all spheres of public life.

Activities to create favorable conditions for the development of civil society in Russia should be carried out by all subjects of the Federation, at any level of government. Only with the successful solution of the entire complex of the tasks listed above is it possible to move forward and, ultimately, to build a civil society in Russia. A prerequisite for this process should be the perception by citizens of the ideas and actions of the state.

However, at present in Russia there is no comprehensively developed unified concept for the protection of human rights and freedoms, which would be shared and supported by all branches of government, local governments, the media and society as a whole, and, accordingly, there is no civil society.

The term "civil society" is firmly included in the categorical apparatus of jurists, historians, philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, etc. At the same time, a wide variation is evident both in the specific definition by various authors of the very concept of "civil society" and in the approaches to its analysis. You can make several definitions of this term, but the main idea, of course, they have one.

Civil society is 1) the presence of property at the disposal of people (individual or collective ownership);

the presence of a developed diverse structure that reflects the diversity of interests of various groups and strata, a developed and ramified democracy;

a high level of intellectual, psychological development of members of society, their ability to self-activity when included in one or another institution of civil society;

law enforcement of the population, that is, the functioning of the rule of law.

A civil society can be considered such a community of people where the optimal ratio of all spheres of public life has been achieved: economic, political, social and spiritual, where the constant progressive movement of society forward is ensured. "Civil society is a society in which associations of citizens of various nature (parties, unions, trade unions, cooperatives, groups) establish a connection between a person and the state and do not allow the latter to usurp the individual."

That is, in the presence of civil society, the government is only one element that coexists with various institutions, parties, associations, etc.

All this diversity is called pluralism and suggests that many organizations and institutions in a democratic society do not depend on the government for their existence, legitimacy and authority. With the existence of civil society, the state acts as a spokesman for the compromise of various forces in society. The economic basis of civil society is the right to private property. Otherwise, a situation is created when every citizen is forced to serve the state on the terms that the state power dictates to him.

The concept and structure of civil society

Civil society exists and functions in a contradictory unity with the state. Under a democratic regime, it interacts with the state; under a totalitarian regime, it stands in passive or active opposition to the state.

It should be noted that any civil society is based on a number of the most general ideas and principles, regardless of the specifics of a particular country. These include:

economic freedom, variety of forms of ownership, market relations;

legitimacy and democratic nature of power;

unconditional recognition and protection of the natural rights and freedoms of man and citizen;

class peace, partnership and national accord;

a legal state based on the principle of separation and interaction of powers;

equality of all before the law and justice, reliable legal protection of the individual;

political and ideological pluralism, presence of legal opposition; civil society power state

freedom of speech and press, independence of the media;

non-interference of the state in the private life of citizens, their mutual duties and responsibilities;

an effective social policy that ensures a decent standard of living for people.

Thus, civil society is defined as an integral social system characterized by the development of market relations, the presence of social classes and strata that have their own sources of existence independent of the state; the economic freedom of producers, the presence of political, social and personal freedoms of citizens, the democracy of political power, the rule of law in all areas of public activity, including the state.

The structure of civil society is the internal structure of society, reflecting the diversity and interaction of its components, ensuring the integrity and dynamism of development.

The system-forming principle that generates the intellectual and volitional energy of society is a person with his natural needs and interests, outwardly expressed in legal rights and obligations. The constituent parts (elements) of the structure are various communities and associations of people and stable relationships (relationships) between them.

The structure of modern civil society can be represented in the form of five main systems, reflecting the corresponding spheres of its life. These are social (in the narrow sense of the word), economic, political, spiritual, cultural and information systems.

In the social sphere, the institutions of civil society are the family and various groups of people: labor, service, groups based on mutual friendship, groups of interest (clubs, hunting, fishing groups, gardening associations, etc.), children's, youth organizations, not those of a political nature (for example, Boy Scout organizations). It should be noted that in this case, we mean the social sphere - this is the sphere of all public life, including the economic, political, spiritual, cultural, information spheres.

In the economic sphere, civil society institutions are organizations, enterprises, institutions engaged in the production of material goods, the provision of various types of services, both material and intangible (banking and credit institutions, travel companies, organizations providing paid legal services).

In the political sphere, the institutions of civil society are political parties, organizations, movements of various political orientations (right, left, centrist, religious), pursuing political goals, participating in the struggle for state or municipal (public power). This also includes youth political organizations (for example, communist youth unions).

The most important institution of civil society in the political sphere is local self-government, whose bodies, together with state bodies, represent the system of public power and are the link between civil society and the state. All of the above institutions, together with the state, constitute the political system of society. Such an institution of civil society as trade unions (trade unions) is distinguished by its originality. They operate in both political and economic spheres.

In the spiritual and cultural sphere, civil society institutions are cultural institutions, creative organizations and unions, educational institutions, physical culture and sports clubs, unions (federations), the church and religious (confessional) organizations that are not of a political nature.

In the information sphere, the institutions of civil society are the mass media (newspapers and magazines, radio and television, Internet information pages). In a totalitarian state, all the above-mentioned spheres of public life are either completely state-owned, or are under the strict, comprehensive control of state bodies, and in an ideological state, which was the former USSR, and under the control of organizations of the ruling party (in the USSR - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - CPSU) .

The most state-owned in the former USSR were the economic and political spheres. In the economic sphere, only the socialist (state and collective-farm cooperative) form of ownership of the means of production was recognized. Private property was prohibited, criminal liability was provided for private entrepreneurial activity and commercial mediation (Article 153 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1960). nature, were mostly state. Collective farms (collective farms), mainly engaged in agriculture, were the form of collective farm ownership. In fact, the collective farms enjoyed no independence, their activities were completely controlled by state bodies and the CPSU. Production cooperatives represented a negligible percentage in the economic system of Soviet society.

The political sphere of Soviet society was characterized by a rigid one-party system. No other political parties, except for the CPSU, were active. The only youth political organization was the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) - Komsomol. Even the children's organization, the All-Union Pioneer Organization, the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin, had a political character.

There was no local self-government in the former USSR - local Soviets were part of the system of state authorities and were completely subordinate to higher state bodies.

Trade unions had a centralized leadership in the form of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU). Legally, trade unions were considered a public organization. However, the actual nationalization of trade unions began in the early years of Soviet power. They were declared a "school of communism" and actually entered the mechanism of the Soviet state, and the trade unions were initially even given second place after the Communist Party. Regarding V.I. Lenin, in his work “Children’s Life of “Leftism” in Communism,” he wrote: “The Party directly relies on the trade union bodies, which now number, according to the last (April 1920) congress, over 4 million people. the leading institutions of the vast majority of the unions ... consist of communists and carry out all the directives of the party ... Then, of course, all the work of the party goes through the Soviets, which unite the working masses without distinction of profession ... Such is the general mechanism of proletarian state power, considered "from above "from the point of view of the practice of exercising dictatorship."

The spiritual and cultural sphere of Soviet society was also subjected to strong stateization, and the information system was completely in the hands of the state. Only the church and religious organizations remained outside the state, on the contrary, anti-religious, atheistic propaganda made up a significant part of the state ideology, and religious institutions themselves and their representatives were periodically subjected to persecution, including of a criminal nature.

In the political sphere, there really is a multi-party system. The nationalization of the spiritual and cultural sphere became minimal. So, for example, the majority of preschool institutions and schools are currently not state, but municipal; there are numerous private and other non-state educational institutions. Both state and municipal and other (independent) mass media operate in the information sphere.

It can be concluded that when characterizing the structure of civil society, three circumstances should be kept in mind.

Firstly, the above classification was undertaken for educational purposes and is conditional. In fact, these structural parts, reflecting the spheres of society's life, are closely interconnected and interpenetrating. The unifying factor, the epicenter of the diverse connections between them, is a person (citizen) as a set of social relations and a measure of all things.

Secondly, when studying social, economic and other systems as relatively independent phenomena, one should not underestimate other structural components (ideas, norms, traditions).

Thirdly, it is necessary to see that the binding, ordering factor in the structure and process of the life of a social organism is law with its natural general humanistic nature, supported by progressive, democratic legislation, that the logic of the development of civil society inevitably leads to the idea of legal statehood, a legal democratic society.

Real freedom of the individual becomes possible in a society of genuine democracy, where not the state, but political power dominates society and its members, but society has unconditional primacy in relation to the state. The transition to such a society is a historically long process, and it is associated with the formation of a civil society.

What is "civil society?" What are its internal mechanisms that allow the development of economic, socio-cultural, political relations in the regime of democracy, respect for the human person, guaranteeing his rights and freedoms?

To answer this question, it is necessary, first of all, to pay attention to the fact that between the concept of "civil society" and the concept of "society" of the same order, there is not only an obvious relationship, but also very significant differences. Society as a set of relations between people becomes civil only at a certain stage of its development - maturity, under certain conditions. In this regard, behind the adjective "civilian", despite some of its vagueness, there is a very specific and very capacious content. The category of civil society reflects the new qualitative state of society, based on the developed forms of its self-organization and self-regulation, on the optimal combination of public (state-public) and private (individual-personal) interests, with the latter determining the significance and with unconditional recognition as the highest value of such a society of a person , his rights and freedoms. Therefore, civil society is opposed not just by a “non-civilian” society, that is, a society that does not have the qualities of a civil society, but by a society of violence, suppression of the individual, state total control over the public and private lives of its members.

The term "civil society" itself is used in both broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, civil society includes all the part of society that is not directly covered by the state, its structures, i.e. something that the state "does not reach the hands of". It arises and changes in the course of natural-historical development as an autonomous sphere, directly independent of the state. Civil society in a broad sense is compatible not only with democracy, but also with authoritarianism, and only totalitarianism means its complete, and more often partial absorption by political power.

Civil society in a narrow, intrinsic sense is inextricably linked with the rule of law, they do not exist without each other. Civil society is a variety of relationships not mediated by the state of free and equal individuals in a market and democratic legal statehood. It is a sphere of free play of private interests and individualism. Civil society is a product of the bourgeois era and is formed mainly from below, spontaneously, as a result of the emancipation of individuals, their transformation from subjects of the state into free citizens of proprietors who have a sense of personal dignity and are ready to take on economic and political responsibility.

Civil society has a complex structure, including economic, economic, family-related, ethnic, religious and legal relations, morality, as well as political relations not mediated by the state between individuals as primary subjects of power, parties, interest groups, etc. In civil society, unlike state structures, not vertical (subordination), but horizontal ties prevail - relations of competition and solidarity between legally free and equal partners.

The historical process of the formation of civil society thus characterizes the complex path of mankind's ascent from various forms of oppression, political dictate and state totalitarianism to real democracy in social relations, to real freedom of the individual. It is no coincidence that the first scientific concepts of civil society that arose in the 18th - early 19th centuries paid attention to such characteristics as the presence of a certain sphere of public (primarily property, market and economic), family, moral, ethical, religious relations, relatively independent from the state. In this regard, the initial understanding of civil society was built, in essence, on the opposition of the sphere of public and private interests: if the state organization of society is the embodiment of the former, then the latter should receive their implementation in an independent, autonomous in relation to the state civil, i.e. private sphere people's lives. By itself, the posing of the question of civil society as a certain sphere of non-political, private life of citizens, independent of state power, historically had, of course, progressive significance. It played an important role in establishing a new, bourgeois constitutional system based on the principles of the inviolability of sacred private property, non-interference of the state in the sphere of free enterprise, the elements of market competition, as well as in the sphere of personal, family life of members of civil society. The formation of a bourgeois society meant the transformation of commodity relations into a universal way of social relations of individuals, when the feudal estates and their state-legal privileges were replaced by the formal legal equality of citizens. “This completed the process of separating political life from civil society”(K. Marx). As a result, civil society also acquired an independent existence, independent of political power.

The concept of "civil society" appeared in modern times in the works of T. Hobbes, J. Locke, C. Montesquieu and others.

The concept of civil society in the works of these thinkers was based on the ideas of natural law and the social contract. From the point of view of these thinkers, man, as a rational being, strives for freedom. He wants to dispose of his personality, to realize himself as the owner of his life rights. The social contract, the association of people into society, assumed both the transfer of their rights to society (the state), and the restriction of state power itself in the interests of realizing the freedom of citizens. Civil society is the result of a contract, an agreement that implies a relationship of reciprocity, voluntariness between the state and the citizen. According to Locke, the natural community of people turns into civil society when "when any number of people are so united into one society that each of them renounces his executive power, inherent in him by the law of nature, and transfers it to society."

At the same time, the thinkers of the New Age identified not every state with civil society, but only one that expresses the interests of citizens. Accounting for these interests, creating conditions for their free implementation are an indispensable condition for the effective development of society. The emphasis on the protection of private interests was characteristic of the work of the English economist A. Smith. The “system of natural freedom” developed by A. Smith proved the need to eliminate state interference in private entrepreneurship, to provide complete freedom for the development of private initiative, the “unnaturalness” of any state control of the individual economic freedom of citizens, which created the necessary conditions for the unlimited development of commodity-money market relations. Thus, a solid economic foundation was laid for the classical model of an emerging civil society, the main requirements of which were private property, a market economy, and the economic independence of people.

Special merit in developing the concept of civil society in its interdependence with the state belongs to Hegel. Based on the systematization of the entire heritage of French, Anglo-Saxon and German social and political thought, Hegel came to the conclusion that civil society is a special stage in the dialectical movement from the family to the state in the process of a long and complex historical transformation from the Middle Ages to the New Age. “Civil society,” he wrote, “is a differentiation that appears between the family and the state, although the development of civil society comes later than the development of the state.”

According to Hegel, the social life characteristic of civil society is radically different from the ethical world of the family and the public life of the state. Civil society includes a market economy, social classes, corporations, institutions whose task is to ensure the viability of society and the implementation of civil law. Civil society is a complex of individuals, classes, groups and institutions whose interaction is regulated by civil law and which, as such, are not directly dependent on the political state itself.

Thus, Hegel came to the conclusion that there is a sphere not only of “general” and political interests, but also of private, more precisely, private property interests. He defined this area as the area of "civil society".

As Hegel noted, unlike the family, the many components of civil society are often disparate, unstable and subject to serious conflicts. It is like a turbulent battlefield where some private interests clash with other private interests. Moreover, the excessive development of some elements of civil society can lead to the suppression of its other elements. Therefore, civil society cannot remain "civilian" until it is politically governed under the supervision of the state. Only the supreme public authority - the constitutional state - can effectively cope with its injustices and synthesize specific interests into a universal political community. From this position, Hegel criticizes the contemporary theory of natural law for confusing civil society and the state.

K. Marx has a special approach to the problem of civil society. K. Marx significantly simplified the complex structure of the Hegelian model of civil society. For him, civil society is the form in which the bourgeois state, based on private property, has arisen and is functioning. In such a society, “none of the so-called human rights goes beyond the limits of an egoistic person, a person as a member of civil society, i.e., as an individual who withdraws into himself, into his own private interest and private arbitrariness and separates himself from the social whole.”

Indeed, the idea of civil society arose and developed in connection with the emergence and development of bourgeois relations. It was caused by the need to use theoretical means to “pave the way” for the bourgeois social system, which is inconceivable without the freedom of a person - a commodity producer.

However, as the events of the 20th century showed, the idea of civil society not only has not become outdated, but, on the contrary, has become even more relevant. It was in the 20th century that the danger of total enslavement of the individual appeared. The source of this danger is the overgrown power of political and state structures, their expansionist claims, which extend not only to economic relations, but also to all other spheres of human activity, including the field of spiritual culture. The aggressiveness of these structures was most clearly manifested in the lives of people in those countries where totalitarian regimes dominated, the administrative-command order, where there was and still is an authoritarian style of relations between the holders of power and ordinary citizens. Therefore, in the 20th century, the development of the concept of civil society took place mainly under the banner of criticism of totalitarian regimes, protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual. In modern political theories, the idea of civil society has been supplemented by the idea of democracy based on political pluralism, general consensus and partnership of competing social groups. The theory of pluralism has become widespread, according to which the main task of a modern democratic society is to achieve a general civil consensus by taking into account and coordinating the many interests of various groups of the population, removing or mitigating contradictions, and seeking civil consent aimed at integrating society.

For the modern understanding of civil society, it is not enough to understand it only from the standpoint of its opposition to state power and, accordingly, to the sphere of realization of public interests. The main thing in the modern, general democratic concept of civil society should be the definition of its own qualitative characteristics of those real social relations that, in systemic unity, can be defined as a modern civil society.

Civil society is not just some kind of voluminous concept that characterizes a certain sphere of social relations, the limits of which are determined only by the fact that this is “the area of private interests” (Hegel). At the same time, "civil society" is not a legal, not a state-legal concept. The state cannot, is not in a position to “establish”, “decree”, “establish” by its laws the image of civil society that it desires.

Civil society is a natural stage, the highest form of self-realization of individuals. It matures with the economic and political development of the country, the growth of prosperity, culture and self-awareness of the people. As a product of the historical development of mankind, civil society appears in the period of breaking the rigid framework of the estate-feudal system, the beginning of the formation of the rule of law. A prerequisite for the emergence of civil society is the emergence of opportunities for all citizens of economic independence on the basis of private property. The most important prerequisite for the formation of civil society is the elimination of estate privileges and the increase in the importance of the human person, a person who turns from a subject into a citizen with equal legal rights with all other citizens. The political foundation of civil society is the rule of law, which ensures the rights and freedoms of the individual. Under these conditions, a person's behavior is determined by his own interests and he is responsible for all actions. Such a person puts his own freedom above all else, while respecting the legitimate interests of other people.

Since a lot of power is concentrated in the hands of the state, it can turn into a huge living organism, reminiscent of the biblical monster Leviathan (something between a hippopotamus and a sea serpent). After all, with the help of officials, the army, the police, the courts, it is easy to suppress the interests of social groups, classes and the whole people. The history of the establishment of fascism in Germany and Italy is a vivid example of how the gluttonous, terrible Leviathan swallowed up society, how the stateization of its spheres took place, and general (total) control over the individual was exercised. These open terrorist dictatorships, as you know, have become the most dangerous opponents of social progress.

In this regard, civil society is an objectively established order of real social relations, which is based on the demands of justice and the measure of achieved freedom, the inadmissibility of arbitrariness and violence, recognized by society itself. This order is formed on the basis of the internal content of these relations, which turns them into a criterion of "justice and measure of freedom." Thus, the relations that make up civil society acquire the ability to carry certain requirements, normative models of behavior of citizens, officials, state bodies and the state as a whole in accordance with the ideals of justice and freedom.

This means that in the relations that make up civil society, the ideas of law are embodied as the highest justice, based on the inadmissibility of arbitrariness and guaranteeing an equal measure of freedom for all members of civil society. These are the normative (obligatory) requirements that develop and exist in civil society, regardless of their state recognition and enshrined in laws. But following them on the part of the state is a guarantee that the law in such a society and state acquires a legal character, that is, they not only embody the state will, but this will fully meets the requirements of justice and freedom.

The legal nature of civil society, its compliance with the highest requirements of justice and freedom is the first most important qualitative characteristic of such a society. This feature of civil society is embodied in the normative requirements inherent in the content of the categories of justice and freedom. Freedom and justice are in the conditions of civil society a social factor that regulates (regulates) the activities of people, teams and organizations. On the other hand, the person himself, as a member of civil society, acquires freedom as a result of his ability to obey the normative requirements of freedom as a recognized necessity.

The second qualitative characteristic of civil society is functional. It is connected with the fact that the basis for the functioning of such a society is not just the creation of a certain field (space) for the implementation of private interests, formally legally independent of state power, but the achievement of a high level of self-organization, self-regulation of society. The main functions of establishing joint activities of members of civil society in certain areas (business and other forms of economic activity, family relations, personal life, etc.) should be carried out in this case not with the help of tools and means of state power standing above society as a “special public authority”, and by society itself on a truly democratic, self-governing basis, and in the sphere of a market economy - primarily on the basis of economic self-regulation. In this regard, the new functional characteristic of civil society is not that the state "generously yields" a certain area of private interests to society itself, leaving it at the mercy of the solution of certain problems. On the contrary, society itself, reaching a new level of its development, acquires the ability to independently, without the intervention of the state, to carry out the corresponding functions. And in this part, it is no longer the state that absorbs society, establishing total state forms of leadership and control over the development of relevant areas, but the reverse process of absorption of the state by civil society takes place: there arises (at least in these areas of “civil life”) the primacy of civil society over the state .

In accordance with this, one can single out the third qualitative feature of civil society, which characterizes its highest values and the main goal of functioning. Unlike the initial ideas about civil society, based on the absolutization of private interests (their main carriers, of course, are private owners), the modern general democratic concept of a post-industrial civil society should be based on the recognition of the need to ensure an optimal, harmonious combination of private and public interests.

Freedom, human rights and his private interests should be considered in this case not from the standpoint of the egoistic essence of the “economic man”, for whom freedom is property, but, on the contrary, property itself in all its diversity of forms becomes a means of affirming the ideals of a liberated person. And this should take place on the basis of unconditional recognition as the highest value of civil society of a person, his life and health, honor and dignity of a politically free and economically independent person.

Accordingly, one should approach the definition main goal functioning of modern civil society. The main goal is to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of a person, to create conditions that ensure a decent life and free development of a person. And the state in this case (under the conditions of a legal civil society) inevitably acquires the character of a welfare state. We are talking about enriching the nature of the state with social principles, which to a large extent transform its power functions. By asserting itself as a social state, the state refuses the role of a “night watchman” and takes responsibility for the socio-cultural and spiritual development of society.

Taking into account the noted qualitative characteristics, it is possible to define the concept of civil society as a system of socio-economic and political relations based on self-organization, functioning in the legal regime of social justice, freedom, satisfaction of the material and spiritual needs of a person as the highest value of civil society.

Modern civil society has the following structure:

1. Voluntarily formed primary communities of people (family, cooperation, association, economic corporations, public organizations, professional, creative, sports, ethnic, confessional and other associations).

2. The totality of non-state non-political relations in society: economic, social, family, spiritual, moral, religious and others. This is the production and private life of people, their customs, traditions, mores.

3. The sphere of self-manifestation of free individuals and their organizations, protected by laws from direct interference in it by the state authorities.

Thus, the structure of civil society in developed countries is a wide network of public relations, various voluntary organizations of citizens, their associations, lobbying and other groups, municipal communes, charitable foundations, interest clubs, creative, cooperative associations, consumer, sports societies, public political, religious and other organizations and unions. All of them express the most diverse social interests in all spheres of society.

From this follows a concrete analysis of the main elements of civil society.

First, the economic organization of civil society - this is society of civilized market relations. The market as a kind of "component" of economic freedom is impossible without the development of independent entrepreneurial activity aimed at systematic profit.

The second structural element of civil society is its social organization. In market conditions, it is very complex, which primarily reflects the differences between individual social groups. Three main groups of the population of civil society can be distinguished: employees, entrepreneurs and disabled citizens. Ensuring a balanced balance of economic interests and material possibilities of these groups is an important direction of social policy.

Employees need to create economic, social and legal conditions for effective work, fair pay for their work, and broad participation in profits.

With regard to entrepreneurs, measures should be taken to guarantee them the freedom of all forms of economic activity, to stimulate their investment in the development of efficient, profitable production of goods and services. As for disabled citizens, they should be provided with targeted social protection, social security and service standards should be defined that will allow them to maintain an acceptable standard of living.

Finally, the third structural element of civil society is its socio-political organization. It cannot be identified with a state-political organization, with state management of society. On the contrary, the real democracy of civil society as the basis for ensuring the real freedom of the individual becomes possible precisely when society, acquiring the qualities of civil, legal, develops its own, non-state socio-political mechanisms of self-regulation and self-organization. In accordance with this, the so-called political institutionalization of civil society takes place, that is, society organizes itself with the help of such institutions as political parties, mass movements, trade unions, women's, veterans', youth, religious organizations, voluntary societies, creative unions, fraternities, foundations, associations and other voluntary associations of citizens created on the basis of their common political, professional, cultural and other interests. An important constitutional basis for the political institutionalization of civil society is the principle of political and ideological pluralism, a multi-party system (Article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). Civil society is alien to political and ideological monopoly, which suppresses dissent and does not allow any other ideology, except for the official, state, no other party except the ruling one - the “party of power”. An important condition for ensuring political and ideological pluralism, and, therefore, the institutionalization of civil society is the freedom to organize and operate the media (Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

This, however, does not mean the identity of individual freedom and the legal status of a citizen. Freedom, as already noted, has such a property as normativity. From this it follows, on the one hand, that a person acquires freedom as a result of his ability to obey its normative requirements (obligatory rules of conduct). On the other hand, this means that the external form of the existence of individual freedom is social norms that determine the measure, the permissible boundaries of freedom. And only in the most important areas, which have an increased significance for society or for the individual himself, the measure of freedom is determined and normalized by the state itself. This is done with the help of legal norms, laws. Laws, if they are of a legal nature, are in this respect, according to Marx, "the bible of freedom." The main legal means of securing, recognizing by the state the achieved freedom of the individual is the constitution.

At the same time, the rights and freedoms themselves, including constitutional ones, on the one hand, are determined by the level of development of civil society, the maturity of its economic, social, socio-political organization; after all, civil society is a social environment where most of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen are realized. On the other hand, the development and deepening of the most important characteristics of civil society as a legal, democratic society, as a society of genuine freedom and social justice largely depend on the fullness of the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, the degree of their guarantee, the sequence of implementation. In this regard, human and civil rights are an instrument for the self-development of civil society, its self-organization. This dual relationship finds its consolidation at the state-legal, legal level, when the Constitution and other laws establish the responsibility not only of a citizen to the state, but also of the state to the individual.

The main function of civil society is the most complete satisfaction of the material, social and spiritual needs of its members. A variety of economic, ethnic, regional, professional, religious associations of citizens are called upon to promote the comprehensive realization by the individual of his interests, aspirations, goals, etc.

As part of this main function, civil society performs a number of important social functions:

1. On the basis of legality, it ensures the protection of private spheres of human and citizen's life from unreasonable strict regulation of the state and other political structures.

2. On the basis of civil society associations, mechanisms of public self-government are created and developed.

3. Civil society is one of the most important and powerful levers in the system of "checks and balances", the desire of political power for absolute domination. It protects citizens and their associations from unlawful interference in their activities by state power and thereby contributes to the formation and strengthening of the democratic bodies of the state, its entire political system. To perform this function, he has a lot of means: active participation in election campaigns and referendums, protests or support for certain demands, great opportunities in shaping public opinion, in particular, with the help of independent media and communications.

4. Civil society institutions and organizations are called upon to provide real guarantees of human rights and victories, equal access to participation in state and public affairs.

5. Civil society also performs the function of social control in relation to its members. It, regardless of the state, has the means and sanctions by which it can force individuals to comply with social norms, ensure the socialization and education of citizens.

6. Civil society also performs a communication function. In a democratic society, there is a diversity of interests. The widest range of these interests is the result of the freedoms that a citizen has in a democracy. A democratic state is designed to satisfy the interests and needs of its citizens as much as possible. However, under the conditions of economic pluralism, these interests are so numerous, so diverse and differentiated that the government has practically no channels of information about all these interests. The task of the institutions and organizations of civil society is to inform the state about the specific interests of citizens, the satisfaction of which is possible only by the forces of the state.

7. Civil society performs a stabilizing function through its institutions and organizations. It creates strong structures on which all social life rests. In difficult historical periods (wars, crises, depressions), when the state begins to stagger, it "turns its shoulder" - strong structures of civil society.

One of the functions of civil society is also to provide a certain minimum level of necessary means of subsistence for all members of society, especially for those who themselves cannot achieve this (the disabled, the elderly, the sick, etc.).