Abstract

In this article the author has researched the problem of finding theoretical-methodological criteria and foundations of civil society. Thesis about historical measuring of civil society, about different aspects of it that manifested in various historical periods are underlined and founded. Aristotle was the first who established the notion ‘civil society’ in social-philosophical and philosophical-political discource and showed two main characteristics of it. There are presence of democracy state and middle class in it. Unlike Aristotle J. Boden connected civil society with state at all and he understood civil society as constellation of relatives who subordinate one power. Wherein citizen use all rights and defense of power. If the J. Boden’s civil society manifests with state simultaneously, the Hegel’s civil society manifests after state and reflects modern period of social relations. Hegel was the first who showed that the main task of civil society is defense of private interests of people. Thereby civil society and state are in dialectical opposition between each other. The author explains three historical periods of becoming of civil society. The first period was in the 16th – 17th centuries, when bourgeoisie came to power at first in historical and social scene and when ideological, political, economical prepositions of civil society are formed. The second period – the 18th – the 19th centuries, when civil society was institutionalized and capitalist relations completely overcame feudalistic relations. The third period is in the 20th – 21st centuries, when civil society is in opposite to any forms of totalitarian world order. That’s why importance of market economics with its probabilistic and nonequilibrium processes.