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Civil Society And Multiple Repositories Of Power Symposium On Legal And Constitutional Implications Of The Calls To Revive Civil Society: Ii. The Constitution Of Civil Society, Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

The primary goal of civil society revivalists is not the revival of civil society. It is the empowerment of otherwise alienated citizens. Reviving civil society is seen as the principal means to that end, but it is not the only means. To be sure, the revivalists focus their attention on participation in nongovernmental associations. But the ways of overcoming alienation are plural, and they include participation in government, participation in nongovernmental associations, and assertions of individual rights against various forms of collective will. In this brief essay, I first explain why only a pluralist understanding of human flourishing fits with …