Abstract
The term civil society has become a part of the contemporary
political lexicon. Despite its popularity in the contemporary
development discourse, it is a polysemous concept, which
has been given different meanings in varied historicaltemporal contexts in Europe by thinkers and theorists having
diverse theoretical positions. That is why the concept is
characterized by much theoretical ambiguity and conceptual
complexity. The present article intends to explore the
development of the concept of civil society in Europe through
the ages in a historical perspective since it is a historicallyembedded concept. Civil society was understood as a political
community by Aristotle, as a sphere of absolute sovereignty
or state in contrast to the state of nature by Hobbes and
Locke, as a critique to absolutism or monarchy by
Montesquieu and Kant, as a self-regulatory and selfgoverning society in opposition the state by Ferguson, as a
realm of economic relations by Smith, as a legal sphere of the
state by Hegel, as an economic structure in a polity by Marx,
as a realm of secondary institutions and intermediary
organizations by de Tocqueville, and as a domain of voluntary
associations counterpoint to the state by Gramsci. This paper
is an attempt to briefly investigate and examine the
contributions of the above-mentioned political thinkers and
theorists in the conceptual development of the idea of civil
society.
Key-words: Civil society, state, economy, European history, European
political thought/philosophy
Tanvir Anjum. (2010) Historical Trajectory of the Development of the Concept of Civil Society in Europe: From Aristotle to GramscI, Journal of Political Studies, Volume 17, Issue 2.
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