On The Dichotomy Of Civil Society And State

The dichotomy of civil society and state is the core of theory on civil society and it was established with the development of personal life and public life and the enlightening thoughts of Bourgeois. The dichotomy was made as the dichotomy of personal life and public life developed to the capitalist society, when nations and sovereign state emerged and the market economy was established. Viewing from the perspective of personal life and public life, we believe that, under the conditions of market economy, modern civil society is independent of the entire private life domain of political state. It has merged into and become a comprehensive summary of the three areas of the personal life--family, economic domain, and the private public domain. It represents autonomous individuals, and, as an organic whole of the private spheres restricts the country's public life. The so-called state is the social public authority, which, as a special social organization, controls the civil society within a certain territory, manages and represents the highest sovereignty. The civil society and the state emerged hand in hand, with market economy serving as the core of the former and public authority the latter. The dichotomy of civil society and state is a new generalization of the whole social state and was formed when the dichotomy of personal life and public life developed to a certain stage.Within the framework of the dichotomy of civil society and state, there are dichotomies of private interests and public interests, ethics and legal norms, general values of life and core values and so on, respectively embodying basic principles of different activities. In civil society private interests are the starting point for personal life. People pursue their private interests in everyday life for survival. What Marx called"history's first premise"meant that people conduct material production in order to meet their own private interests. Everyone is a"special individual"who has his own specific and realistic special interests, which are realized through one's private practice with the aid of means and conditions provided by the society. These private interests are by no means without foundation and they are restricted by social historical conditions. Public interests arise between private interests, and they are created when various private interests meet mutual needs. People's social practice and interaction root in their social attribute, which determines that, when people pursue private interests, they are also creating a realistic possibility for the emergence and establishment of public interests. Conflicts between personal interests and public interests are unavoidable in social practice and interactions. Public interests exceed, restrict and guarantee private interests. Although public interests exist among private interests, it overcomes the special nature of it and limits its extreme expansion to protect the individual private interests. As the carrier of the public interests of the time, state represents and guarantees public interests, and it conducts public activities within public domain. However, with the emergence and development of private ownership, different classes came into existence. The result of class struggle is that one class became the ruling and the other the subject. Henceforth, the public interests is represented and achieved by the ruling class by means of the state. As far as the subject class was concerned, the public interests naturally become illusive.Modern society is composed of civil society and the state. Civil society represents individual life domain, and the state represents public life domain. Individual life domain can be adjusted by morals and ethics, while public life domain must be regulated by policies and laws. The state organs, such as, army, police, courts, prisons and so on, guarantee the implementation of policies, laws and other norms of the state. Therefore, mandatory authorities, policies, and laws altogether constitute the mandatory domain. Legal norms only act in the state public life domain; it can not adjust private social life, i.e., it is not a one-for-all social restraint mechanism. Ethics refers to the social norms adjusting the relationship between people within the civil society. It is independent of army, courts, prisons and other state organs. It is not a mandatory social norm and relies on private self-discipline. Ethics comes from interactions between people, and it is a spontaneous behavior with the purpose of maintaining everyday life. Law and ethics have always been combined on a basis of different forms to adjust, constrain, and integrate social life.Egoism and individualism values are expanded with the establishment and continuous development of the market economy. If Egoism were only conducted in personal life under certain circumstances in traditional society, it has become the criteria for the entire civil life in modern society; if individualism and egoism were individual instincts when people were suppressed and excluded, it has become the universal and neutral value in the field of labor and exchange, guiding people's everyday activities and communications. In a market economy the goal of all economic exchanges are to maximize personal interests and expand private property, and there is keen competition between private persons. However, human nature determines that egoism can not be regarded as the one and only value. In fact, during the process of pursuing their ideal life, human are constructing the whole public life values as well. Without public life values, personal life will come to a standstill. Under the conditions of modern market economy, egoism becomes the general human values, which does not mean that the individuals are free from the constraints of productivity and economic exchanges. On the contrary, with the rapid development of the market economy, divisions of labor have become more and more professional and individuals become less and less insignificant. In the vast ocean of the market economy, if human want to transcend their limits to open up the infinite ideal life, they must focus on public life, taking the power of humanity as a whole, to challenge and surpass their limits. The public life values are an inevitable requirement of public life, as well as a breakthrough and improvement to egoism.Ever since Hegel and Marx defined the dichotomy of civil society and State, the interrelationship between them in real life has been opened up. The historical progress of the dichotomy of civil society and state has been generally accepted by philosophers like Hegel, Marx and so on. In their view, compared with the traditional integration of society and state, it is a tremendous historical progress; the stage of the dichotomy of civil society and state is inevitable in the development of human society, which would make necessary preparation for a higher social development. Meanwhile, Hegel and Marx also pondered the future unity of the dichotomy and demonstrated its development tendency. Hegel argued that the state will go beyond civil society; civil society will be unified in the state. Marx believed that when the society develops to the association of free men stage, the state will return and be unified to society. Combining theories of the classical economic liberalism, the welfare state, neo-liberalism, the left-wing critical theory, the third way theory and so on, we may safely conclude that civil society and state must be unified in Marx's association of free men stage.Marx pointed out that the association of free men stage should be the common ideal of human beings and the real community form.In the first place, in association of free men stage, with highly development of productive forces and utmost abundance of material wealth, individuals are free from the limitations of survival; individual productivities become social commons; without the basis and need for existence, private ownership of the means of production will be eradicated completely. It is only under such conditions that human nature can be achieved and guaranteed in association of free men stage.Secondly, in association of free men stage, public authority will no longer be alienated and drive above the society, nor will it be processed by a minority ruling class, and public affairs will no longer need the management of the state. Moreover, the public functions of state in modern society will be taken place by society, and the disillusion of public nature will be overcome and taken placed by a comprehensive public nature. Therefore, in association of free men stage, the state has lost its meaning of existence and is bound to die out.Thirdly, in association of free men stage, the relationship between material production and exchange, with capital as the bond, will come to an end; classes and class antagonism, due to the abolition of private ownership, will be terminated; conflicts between public interest and private interest will disappear; ethics and legal norms will be internalized into citizen's consciousness, egoism and core values will be replaced by public values.Fourthly, Marx argued,"human nature is the real community form". Association of free men is the foundation of life itself, material and spiritual life, human morality, human activity, human enjoyment, human nature and what we are. Individual freedom, including individual free activities and self-fulfillment, can only be realized in this community.All in all, from the original clan society to class societies, as feudal society, capitalist society and so on, to classless society, as the association of free men stage, it is the dialectics of development of human society. Society is eternal and society is the goal. Being an indispensable stage in the development of human society, state only serves as a tool and will be completely socialized in the association of free men stage.