Functional civil societies depend on self-governance rather than fear and surveillance

Evidence

A civil society cannot be run on fear control alone. It requires massive social surveillance and an extensive system of punitive sanctions to stifle noncompliance. A civil society is largely a self-governing one. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 70

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader quiet/silence library theme of external control versus self-regulation, and to Foucault’s panopticon surveillance arguments. — connects to: Social control operates through voluntary organizations rather than formal coercion — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 115; Control societies replace external surveillance with internalized self-policing — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 48; Control societies govern by indefinite postponement and internalized policing — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 48
• CANDY: A compact debatable claim — ‘a civil society is largely a self-governing one’ — that works as a conversation opener.