In his opening address in Beijing to the U.N. conference on the question of Palestine on Dec. 16, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo paid particular at- tention to the role of civil society -- academic and business communities, nongovernmental organizations and others -- in appealing for peace and a dialogue between the Mideast parties in conflict. The recent Geneva Accord "and all the other constructive efforts by civil society in resolving the Middle East issue deserve our applause, encouragement and strong support," he said.

When even China officially acknowledges, endorses and encourages the role of civil society, we know that civil society is an idea whose time has come.

As societies evolve, expand and multiply, their governing framework of rules and institutions become correspondingly more complex and functionally specific. A necessary consequence of increasingly differentiated structures of governance is the increased space between citizens as self-contained individuals and the state as a collective abstraction. In contemporary societies, governments can satisfy only a small and diminishing proportion of the needs of human beings as social animals. Consequently, citizens look more and more to civic associations to channel a growing range and variety of social interactions, which in turn need a framework of governance outside the jurisdiction of the state.