Civility functions as the behavioral glue binding civil society and state

Evidence

Civil society mediates state institutionalities, rendering them livable. It draws attention away from the dourness, the drab bureaucratic repetitiveness, of institutional formalisms. We turn explicitly to institutions only in times of perceived need – “theirs” or “ours.” We see ourselves living in civil society while looking to the state to look out for us, to mind our backs and behinds, to offer the “safety net” should we fall. Civility, it might be said in these terms, offers the behavioral mediation, the glue, cementing civil society and the state into a model society. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 287

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines civility as the mediating behavioral layer that makes state institutions livable — a useful conceptual anchor.
• XREF: connects to: Civility becomes a rational self-protection strategy when states fail — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 203