The Concept of Civil Society in Studies of Relations between the State and Volunteers

The paper presents the comparative analysis results of how the volunteers organizations interact with the government in different Russian regions, which differ in the degree of civil society institutes development. The empirical basis consists of the results of sociological survey conducted in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District and Perm Territory. The results show the contradictory nature of the political aspects of relations between volunteers and government institutions, which are difficult to interpret within the classical concept of civil society. On the one hand, the dependence of the volunteer movement on state support raises the question of its value as a civil society institution. On the other hand, it is precisely this support that ensures the role of the movement in the political socialization of citizens. As a solution to the problem we propose to clarify the semantic content of the ‘civil society’ concept.