Politics doesn’t only happen in governments. There are many nongovernmental actors involved in social and political activities. The name for this area of activity is civil society.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are groups formed by people who share similar interests, values and goals. CSOs usually take part in social and political action to address social problems, defend their interests and achieve their goals. Because of their strong values and their commitment to social change, many CSO members work voluntarily and often take risks that other political actors do not.

Civil society is often said to be the third sector between the state and market (the area of commercial activity). No CSOs exist only to make profit (like businesses), and because CSOs are freely formed by citizens, they are independent from the activities of the state. However, it is very common that the actors in these three sectors interact with each other.

Who Is Civil Society?

Civil society organisations are formed by citizens to address the concerns of citizens. Civil society is usually a very diverse sector. It includes many groups, many interests, and often a lot of cooperation and conflict between these groups.

Examples of CSOs include:

• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
• Community-based organisations (CBOs)
• Organisations that represent businesses or industries
• Trade unions and professional associations
• Gender, cultural and religious groups
• Charities
• Social and sports clubs
• Environmental groups
• Human rights groups

The Importance of Civil Society

Civil society organisations can provide platforms for groups to express their needs and interests to the government. CSOs inform people about social and political issues so that it is more difficult for the government to ignore them.

The bottom-up power of a strong civil society can be a threat to authoritarian governments. As a result, these governments often try to limit civil society organisations. This means that civil society is often weak and lacks independence in authoritarian states. However, civil society has frequently played a very important role in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

This section will look at some of the most important kinds of civil society actors: community based organisations (CBOs), nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and social movements.