Fundamentals

Civil Society: What It Is and How It Differs from the State

By Daniel Sardá · Published on June 06, 2026

7 min read1,437 words

Civil society is the sphere of associations and collective action that links people with one another and with public institutions.

Civil society is the varied sphere of associations, communities, and collective action that forms between individuals and in relation to the state. It includes organizations created to defend interests, share values, provide help, express demands, or cooperate around common goals.

A neighborhood association, a labor union, a foundation, a religious organization, or an NGO can all be part of it. But civil society is not simply everything that lies outside government, nor is it synonymous with society as a whole.

The term also has a different legal meaning. In some countries, “civil society” refers to a contractual form governed by civil law. This article focuses on its sociopolitical meaning and briefly clarifies the legal one to avoid confusion.

In simple terms: civil society is the space where people organize autonomously to pursue shared goals without becoming part of the state apparatus.

What Civil Society Means

In political science, civil society is often described as an intermediate network between individuals and the state. Britannica, for example, highlights the groups, communities, and ties that occupy that space. This is a useful working definition, although its boundaries are not universal or always clear.

The core idea does not depend on an organization being large, professionalized, or formally incorporated. Civil society may include both stable institutions and informal groups that come together to address a specific problem. What matters is some form of autonomous association or collective action.

That is why an NGO can be a civil-society organization, but the two concepts are not identical. Civil society is a broader sphere: it includes many kinds of organizations, networks, and initiatives.

It is also not the same as “citizenship.” Citizenship describes a political and legal status. Civil society describes forms of organization and participation that people can create, join, or support.

Which Organizations Belong to Civil Society

Depending on the definition used, civil society may include:

• Neighborhood, community, cultural, or professional associations.
• Labor unions, guilds, and worker organizations.
• Foundations, charities, and NGOs.
• Churches and other religious organizations.
• Social movements, civic networks, and informal groups.

The OECD uses a broad definition that includes nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations active in public life, from informal groups to large entities.

Still, a list does not settle every case. A business association participates in collective affairs, but it also represents economic interests. An organization may receive public funding without automatically becoming part of the state. Another may declare itself independent and still operate under political control.

That is why each case should be evaluated through concrete questions: does the organization belong to the state apparatus? Was it created mainly to compete for public power? Is its central activity commercial exchange? Does it retain autonomy to define its goals and decisions?

Civil Society and the State: What Is the Difference

The state exercises public authority, issues and enforces rules, collects taxes, and maintains institutions with compulsory powers over a territory. Civil society, by contrast, brings together non-state organizations that emerge from social initiative and act through participation, persuasion, cooperation, or public pressure.

This difference does not mean the two spheres must be isolated. An association can dialogue with a ministry, participate in a public consultation, monitor a policy, or collaborate in service delivery. The relationship may involve cooperation, criticism, negotiation, or conflict.

Autonomy is the decisive criterion. An entity funded or regulated by the state can still belong to civil society if it retains real capacity to govern itself and express its own positions. If it functions as an extension of public power, that classification becomes much less convincing.

From a classical liberal perspective, independent associations matter because they create spaces for cooperation that do not depend on a central political command. They can also express interests, demand accountability, and limit the concentration of power. These are possible functions, not automatic virtues of every organization.

Civil Society and the Market Are Not the Same

The market coordinates economic exchanges between people and organizations. Civil society refers mainly to associations oriented toward non-state collective purposes, often non-profit. Both spheres arise from decentralized social interaction, but they serve different ends.

A business sells goods or services and belongs to the market economy. A foundation that gathers donations to fund scholarships usually belongs to civil society. A business association sits in a borderline zone: it represents market participants, but it acts collectively before society and public institutions.

Saying that civil society is “everything non-state” would erase that difference. It would also include families, businesses, and any private relationship without distinction, making the concept less useful.

Civil Society and Political Parties

Political parties are also voluntary organizations, but they have a special feature: they seek access to state power or direct influence over it through elections and public office.

For that reason, many definitions separate parties from civil society. Civil-society organizations can influence public decisions, but they are normally not created to govern. An environmental association may promote a law; a party presents candidates to occupy the institutions that will approve or apply it.

Once again, the boundary depends on the definition. Some broad conceptions include parties among civil associations. The most precise approach is to explain the criterion being used instead of claiming that parties always do or never do belong to civil society.

Freedom of Association as an Institutional Foundation

Civil society requires that people be able to gather, create organizations, define goals, and leave groups without coercion. Freedom of association provides the legal basis for that autonomy.

Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes everyone’s right to associate freely with others, including the right to form and join trade unions. That recognition protects an important condition for independent organizations to emerge.

But the formal existence of the right does not by itself guarantee an active, plural, or effective civil society. Practical ability to organize, the safety of members, tolerance for disagreement, and rules that do not turn autonomous association into a privilege subject to political approval also matter.

Why Civil Society Matters

Civil society allows people to cooperate on problems and interests they cannot or do not want to address alone. Its organizations can provide help, preserve traditions, represent professions, defend rights, produce knowledge, or open channels of dialogue with public institutions.

They also function as intermediate institutions: they connect individuals and communities with larger structures. A person acting alone often has little capacity to express a public demand; an association can gather information, coordinate efforts, and make a shared concern visible.

From classical liberalism, this associative fabric matters because it spreads initiative and social power. A society in which every collective action depends on the government leaves little room for autonomy. Still, idealizing civil society would be a mistake: its organizations can be opaque, exclusionary, captured by special interests, or hostile to the freedom of others.

The label “civil society” does not prove representativeness, transparency, or legitimacy. It is a descriptive category, not a moral certificate.

The Legal Meaning of Civil Society

In legal language, “civil society” can mean something different: a company or contract through which several people pool resources or activities to share the results. The specific rules vary by country.

For example, the Spanish Civil Code, in articles 1665 to 1670, regulates a form called sociedad. That usage belongs to private law and should not be confused with the network of associations and collective actions studied by political science.

The context usually reveals the correct meaning. If the text speaks about civic participation, NGOs, movements, or relations with the state, it is probably using the sociopolitical sense. If it speaks about partners, contributions, contracts, or profit sharing, it is probably using a specific legal sense of the relevant jurisdiction.

A Simple Rule for Recognizing the Concept

To identify civil society in the sociopolitical sense, it helps to think in terms of people who organize themselves autonomously around shared goals, outside the state apparatus and without reducing their central activity to commercial exchange or the pursuit of public power.

The definition allows for borderline cases, and that ambiguity is not a defect that can be removed with a rigid list. What matters is distinguishing the concept from society as a whole, from the state, from the market, from parties, and from the legal figure that shares its name.

Understood this way, civil society is a plural space for cooperation and participation. It can mediate between people and power, but its value depends on the freedom, autonomy, and responsibility with which its organizations act.