The state’s coercive arm withers as civil society expands within it.

Evidence

It is possible to imagine the coercive element of the State withering away by degrees, as ever-more conspicuous elements of regulated society (or ethical State or civil society) make their appearance. … Nor can this conjure up the idea of a new “liberalism”, even though the beginning of an era of organic liberty be imminent. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 979

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains Gramsci’s ‘regulated society’ — the end-state where civil society absorbs the State.