GOVT1107 Lecture 12: GOVT1107 Lecture - Week 12
13 Aug 2018
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Document Summary
Civil society = the aggregate of voluntary organisations found between the family and the state. It is organised, voluntary and autonomous of the state such as labour unions etc. By convention, political parties and business are usually excluded. Totalitarianism: elaborate ideology, popular mobilisation, total absence of civil society (such as nazi germany). Authoritarianism: no elaborate ideology, popular demobilisation, limited spaces for civil society (such as spain under franco). Conservatives love it because consistent with commitment to small state (such as. Leftists love it because of potential for grassroots, bottom-up participation and transformation (such as the occupy movement): democratisation. There is power in numbers - especially when organised. Raises what dahl called cost of repression". Lipset on intermediary organisations" and countervailing powers" (think of nations such as the uk or south africa). An example of this would have been solidarity which was a group in poland that fought against the soviet backed communist regime until 1989.
