Which of the following is the non-state and non-market part of public domain?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Civil Society
Option (1) Society — Incorrect. Society is the whole of social life, including the family, the state and the market; the question asks for one particular part of the public domain.
Option (2) Nation — Incorrect. A nation is a large-scale community, a community of communities, whose members share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity. It names a people, not the non-state, non-market space where citizens act together.
Option (3) Civil Society — Correct. Civil society is the broad arena beyond the private domain of the family but outside both state and market: the non-state and non-market part of the public domain where individuals voluntarily form institutions and organisations to take up social issues and make demands on the state.
Option (4) Nation-State — Incorrect. A nation-state is a nation that has formed its own state, the set of political-legal institutions that controls a territory and its people. It is the very domain of the state, which civil society lies outside.
NCERT (2025-26): “6.4 State and Civil Society … Civil society is the name given to the broad arena which lies beyond the private domain of the family, but outside the domain of both state and market. Civil society is the non-state and non-market part of the public domain in which individuals get together voluntarily to create institutions and organisations. It is the sphere of active citizenship: here, individuals take up social issues, try to influence the state or make demands on it, pursue their collective interests or seek support for a variety of causes.…” |