Yet civil society everywhere is a bewildering array of the good, the bad, and the outright bizarre. Recognizing that people in any society associate and work together to advance nefarious as well as worthy ends is critical to demystifying the concept of civil society. Karadzic represented the aspirations of ordinary Serbs in that extraordinary time all too faithfully, and could rightfully lay just as great a claim to being an exemplar of civil society as Vaclav Havel. The idea that civil society inherently represents the public good is wrong in two other ways as well. Although many civic activists may feel they speak for the public good, the public interest is a highly contested domain.
Clean air is a public good, but so are low energy costs.
The same could be said of free trade versus job security at home or free speech versus libel protection. Struggles over the public interest are not between civil society on the one hand and bad guys on the other but within civil society itself. Moreover, civil society is very much concerned with private economic interests. Nonprofit groups, from tenants' organizations to labor unions, work zealously to advance the immediate economic interests of their members. A Strong Civil Society Ensures Democracy Tempting thought.