@ 30.11.2022

The basis of civil society in any country is social structures and institutions. The level of development of civil society determines how adequate in its behavior the power is and how balanced the state is.

Let's make a comparative description of social structures in different political regimes in order to see the difference and determine the essence and role of social institutions in the life of modern society.

If we consider social structures in the Western world - we may be surprised to find that social structures in the West are quite independent and independent of the state as a whole. To a greater extent the quality of work of social institutions does not depend on state influence, this quality depends directly on civic initiatives, and often on lobbying of business interests in certain spheres of life as a tool of influence on the government and state policy.

At the same time, the resistance of social institutions to almost any outside influence is extremely high. They are independent, formalized, capable, tough in terms of resilience elements, which are in constant interaction with each other and the power at all levels.

Power and the state cannot mold social structures like plasticine at will and according to their plans. Power can only, interacting with social institutions, try to build them into a certain figure, chains and interrelations in order to try to make a general picture within the framework of its policy, as if trying to put into a bag a number of small details, elements, so that there would be no protruding edges, corners, which would spoil the general impression of the country.

In countries that have recently emerged from the darkness of totalitarianism and autocracy, the situation with the institutions of civil society is diametrically opposite.

The social structures themselves are presented in an amoeba-like plasticine state, and any manifestations of resistance or consciousness are immediately stigmatized by the state and suppressed either to transform or completely destroy dissent. In the literal sense, civil society in such states is a plasticine in the hands of the authorities, who, depending on their own feeble mindedness, can mold absolutely any figures and pictures.

Certainly, this is a total violation of the balance between society and power, the absence of feedback and dependence. Naturally, in such a situation, power unleashes all of its monsters, knowing no limitations, which ultimately leads to revolutionary phenomena and the fall of the regime as such, unless power itself makes the appropriate changes and transforms, moderating its ambitions, but unfortunately this happens in extremely rare cases.

Having considered these two pictures in comparison, it is possible to come to the conclusion that power, represented by the state, should treat any manifestations of civil society extremely carefully and with care, understanding that any careless movement can entail the violation or destruction of even the smallest elements of civil society, causing very negative consequences for the power itself.