The State and Civil Society: A Historical Relationship Based on the Exercise of Power?

This article aims to debate the relationship between the State and Civil Society, assessing whether these historical relations are based on the exercise of power, viewed from a relational perspective between the representative subjects of the both categories, rather than its hegemonic pattern from one category to another. It is proposed, in this article, the discussion of the literature as the methodological basis. The main findings allowed understanding that in the recent theories of global society, Civil Society occupies a space reserved for the demands directed to the political system to which it fulfills the duty to answer them, through its constituting institutions. Thus, the power of Civil Society tends to increase the more it tends to diminish the State's responsiveness. Moreover, power stems from relations between human beings regardless the form of political, economic or ideological organization of societies.