西方公民社会概念的历史演变

摘要

The concept of civil society has experienced a long process of evolution in the west. In ancient Greek and Roman times, civil society usually refers to the political community or the citystate. With the corresponding is human natural （or savage） state. The modern concept of civil society has reflected in the separation of neoteric European political states from civil societies , which involves all fields of social life except for political countries. It is a scientific concept which has been put forward on the basis of absorbing numerous thinkers＇theoretical achievements by Hegel and has been improved by Marx. While,the contemporary civil society theorists believe that the economic sphere has been detached from the civil society and advocate the trichotomy of the civil society - economy country and the civil society should be primarily constituted by the social and cultural fields.%公民社会概念在西方经历了漫长的演变过程。在古希腊罗马时代，公民社会通常是指政治共同体或城邦国家，与之相对应的是人类的自然（或野蛮）状态。现代公民社会概念的出现是近代欧洲政治国家与公民社会相分离的反映，它包括了政治国家之外的社会生活的一切领域。它是由黑格尔在吸收了众多思想家理论成果的基础上提出并由马克思予以完善的科学概念。当代公民社会理论认为经济领域已从公民社会中分离出去，主张采取公民社会-经济-国家的三分法，指出公民社会应该主要由社会和文化领域构成。当代西方公民社会概念可以说是古希腊罗马以及17、18世纪英国人和法国人代表的古典公民社会概念与黑格尔和马克思等人代表的现代公民社会概念在当代的融合及发展。