Understanding the Relationship between Civil Society and the State

Abstract

World is facing so many challenges like the protection of the human rights of people, protection and preservation of the environment, terrorism, racial violence, drug trafficking and sale, climate change and so on. States or the governments alone cannot tackle these challenges. Civil Society is one important institution that has come in support of the governments in facing all these challenges. However, sometimes relationship between state and civil society becomes tense as states start thinking that civil society institutions are interfering in their jurisdiction. To deal with such tensions, different thinkers have provided various theoretical perspectives, which have been discussed in this paper.