Abstract

There are a wide range of modern concepts of civil society. While structuring current existing approaches to the understanding of civil society, the author has identified the following groups: a broad approach to the interpretation of civil society; socio-cultural approach; communicative approach and, finally, global civil society concept. Proponents of the broad approach to understanding civil society do not regard it as an institutional phenomenon, but consider key characteristic of that type of a society in terms of its self-organization and the level of democracy attained. Here civil society is considered to be an important condition for democracy and a necessary factor for democratic change in the country. The sociocultural approach to the study of civil society frames it as a special sociocultural space, a system of non-state social institutions and relations. They point out that it creates possibilities and conditions for each person, being an independent subject of public life, to realize their civil rights and spiritual needs within the generally accepted legal norms. According to the communicative approach, civil society is aimed at fulfilling the control over the state. Therefore, continuous improvement and development of civil society contributes to the effective development of the state. Whereas global civil society concept is grounded on the assumptions that this type of emerging transnational society has to solve the overarching problems of humanity by interacting through the global network.