The sphere of voluntary associations, movements, unions, churches and media that sits between household and state and outside both government and market.
In more detail
Older usage treated civil society as the political community itself. Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1821) separated it from the state as the realm of market and associations, and modern usage follows that split. Putnam's study of Italian regions argued that dense associations build trust that supports good government, a link that scholars still debate. Civil society organisations can also be exclusionary or serve narrow interests.