Civil society transcends right-left gap

Sociologists ponder how the current US social and political climate will influence the future – and some experts predict a backlash to the polarization, suggesting that responsible global governance will restrain excessive national power and capitalist markets. The catalyst for such an outcome, the force of civil society, can reinforce common values in an age of partisanship. Civil society has the power to unite domestic policy around common themes, breeding voluntary and transnational systems of global governance. With governance based on shared standards of right and wrong, civil society makes democracies more representative and responsive. Given the opinions, both foreign and domestic, of the direction of US policy today, the influence of civil society on government would lead to less unilateralism and authoritarianism internationally, as well as less partisanship and greater social conscience at home. The global public hungers for social order with core values, such as democracy, honesty, and safeguards to public health and education, and such attitudes could offer optimism about the role of democracy and the UN in an age of globalization. – YaleGlobal