Part(6) Principle for a Free Socieity

[William M. Finley]

Rebuilding civil society
There is perhaps no more vital task today than rebuilding the civil order
in those societies where the omnipotent state has left that order in ruins.
It would be an error to suppose that government can achieve that task.
Civil society is the result of the spontaneous human actions of a free
people. It requires that government get out of the way of people’s
endeavours and leave them free to associate with one another. It is easier
for the moral fabric of society to be destroyed than it is for it to be carefully
built up and passed down through the generations. There can be
no doubt that freedom will not last long unless that task is begun. That
means that the people must be free, in their economic affairs, in their
religious activities and in their family lives.
- 9 - By Nigel Ashford
Reading
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London,
Penguin, 1968.
Benjamin Constant, Benjamin Constant: Political Writings, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1988 (1833), pp.309-328.
Francis Fukuyama, Trust: the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity,
New York, Free Press, 1995.
Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals, London,
Hamish Hamilton, 1994.
David Green, Reinventing Civil Society, London, Institute of Economic
Affairs, 1993, Part 1.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, New York, Fontana,
1968 (1840), Volume 2, Part 2.
Questions for thought
1. Why is a strong civil society valuable?
2. To what extent can civil society fulfill many of the responsibilities
of government, for example, in helping drug addicts or the poor?
3. How should government try to encourage civil society?