公民社会:一个概念的历史考察

Civil Society:A Historical Study of a Concept

纵观西方"公民社会"概念的历史演变过程,可以发现其理论内涵先后发生了三次重大的转变。在古代,公民社会是一个与自然状态相对应的概念,但到了近代,西方思想家开始提出一种建立在国家和社会二分法基础上的公民社会观,而在现代,人们又开始用国家—市场—社会三分法来代替国家和社会二分法,并在此基础上重新界定了公民社会的内涵。

Throughout the history of the evolution of＂ civil society ＂in the western eountries, we can see that the theoretical content has happened three major changes with the development of Western society. In ancient times, civil society is a concept that corresponds to the natural state .However, in modern times, We.stem thinkers have begun to put forward a concept of civil society which is set up based on the dichotomy of state and society, and to the contemporary, the people also began to use the trichotomy of state, economy and civil society instead of dichotomy of state and society, and based on this redefining the meaning of civil society.