Civilisational genesis of the concept of civil society
The present paper sets out to discuss the conditions for building civil society beyond the circle of the Western civilisation and proposes a framework for sociological categories to examine whether such a process is possible.
Nowhere except the West has there emerged a civilisation founded on rationalisation as its underlying principle a process conceptualised already by Weber. On the one hand, rationalisation of actions taken by individuals inevitably led to suppression of natural instincts, which certainly involved a risk of eruption of accumulated tension as ultimately shown by the outcome of Nazi ideology. On the other, it stimulated growth of modern associations and a certain social polish, which enabled the development of a parliamentary system, initially in England, and, consequently, the emergence of civil society as such. An interesting account of the process was provided by Adam Ferguson, a witness of the times.
Shmuel Eisenstadt was another author to notice the unique nature of the West. Classified as one of the ‘axial civilisations,’ the West is exceptional: it is here that a new civilisation — the modern civilisation — was born and, as it seems, it is only here that civil society and, consequently, pluralism, is possible.
For Norbert Elias, the concept of the civilising process is a key element characteristic of the West. The author indicates that the rise of the Western civilisation came as a result of combined environmental, historical and cultural factors.
The paper considers also works by Florian Znaniecki Ludzie teraźniejsi a cywilizacja przyszłości [The people of today and the civilization of the future] and Feliks Koneczny.