Civil Society and Government

Published by Princeton University Press 2002

Civil Society and Government

Edited by: Nancy L. Rosenblum and Robert C. Post

Volume 3 in the series Ethikon Series in Comparative Ethics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691228396

Overview
Contents

About this book

Civil Society and Government brings together an unprecedented array of political, ethical, and religious perspectives to shed light on the complex and much-debated relationship between civil society and the state. Some argue that civil society is a bulwark against government; others see it as an indispensable support for government. Civil society has been portrayed both as a independent of the state and as dependent upon it. This book reveals the extraordinary diversity of views on the subject by examining how civil society has been treated in classical liberalism, liberal egalitarianism, critical theory, feminism, natural law, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Confucianism.

The volume draws on the work of eminent scholars to address six questions: In terms of function and consequences, does it matter where the line is drawn between civil society and the state? What is the relationship of civil society to the state? In what contexts and under what conditions should government interact with individuals directly or instead indirectly through communal associations? What are the prerogatives and duties of citizenship, and what is the role of civil society in forming good citizens? How should a society handle the conflicts that sometimes arise between the demands of citizenship and those of membership in the non-governmental associations of civil society?

A theoretical introduction by the editors--political theorist Nancy Rosenblum and legal scholar Robert Post--and a conclusion by religious ethicist Richard Miller, tie the book together. In addition to Rosenblum, the contributors are Kenneth Baynes, David Biale, John Coleman, Farhad Kazemi, John Kelsay, William Galston, Will Kymlicka, Tom Palmer, Fred Miller, Susan Moller Okin, Peter Nosco, Henry Rosemont, Steven Scalet, David Schmidtz, William Sullivan, Max Stackhouse, Stephen White, and Noam Zohar.

Author / Editor information

Nancy L. Rosenblum is Professor of Government at Harvard University. She is the author of Membership and Morals (Princeton), Another Liberalism, and editor of Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith (Princeton). Robert C. Post is Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Constitutional Domains and editor or coeditor of several other books.

Reviews

"The conversation about civil society is important and exciting, but remains marked by a high level of noise and a low level of coherence. This volume shows that the many disagreements over defining the concept of civil society are not simply explanatory—maybe not even mostly explanatory—but normative and ideological in nature. These essays begin to translate the terms of these perspectives into the language of civil society, a key preliminary to understanding the contours of the conversation. In so doing, the volume provides an important contribution to an increasingly rich conversation."—Mark E. Warren, Georgetown University

"Overall, there is nothing like this book that I know of. The contributors approach the question of the nature and place of civil society from within the most important contextual understandings of the major philosophical, ethical, and religious positions available in the world. This is a book that brings together material from an unusually wide range of perspectives on an important topic. The scholarship is first-rate—one profits from reading the footnotes as well as the text."—Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego

"The writing is crisp, the research and argumentation uniformly good."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Robert C. Post and Nancy L. Rosenblum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
State, Civil Society, and Classical Liberalism Steven Scalet and David Schmidtz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Classical Liberalism and Civil Society: Definitions, History, and Relations Tom G. Palmer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Civil Society and Government: A Liberal-Egalitarian Perspective Will Kymlicka Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Liberal Egalitarianism: A Family of Theories, Not a Single View William A. Galston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
A Critical Theory Perspective on Civil Society and the State Kenneth Baynes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Skeptics at the Celebration: Civil Society and the Early Frankfurt School Stephen K. White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Feminist Perspectives on Civil Society and Government Nancy L. Rosenblum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Comment on Nancy Rosenblum's "Feminist Perspectives on Civil Society and Government" Susan Molkr Okin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Natural Law, Civil Society, and Government Fred D. Miller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Natural Law: A Response William M. Sullivan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
A Limited State and a Vibrant Society: Christianity and Civil Society John A. Coleman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Christianity, Civil Society, and the State: A Protestant Response Max L. Stackhouse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Civil Society and Government: Seeking Judaic Insights Noam J. Zohar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Response to Noam Zohar David Biale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	280
Civil Society and Government in Islam John Kelsay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	284
Perspectives on Islam and Civil Society Farhad Kazemi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Confucian Perspectives on Civil Society and Government Peter Nosco Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	334
Commentary and Addenda on Nosco's "Confucian Perspectives on Civil Society and Government" Henry Rosemont Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	360
Overview: The Virtues and Vices of Civil Society Richard B. Miller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	370
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401