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A lot of time is necessary to implement the idea of building the
legal state. This idea has been proclaimed for a long time in many
European countries but no state has built it yet. The idea of a law-
based state should be considered as an ideal, as a social goal of any

democratic society, since the implementation of the principles of the
legal state provides the opportunity to develop democracy, ensure the
legality and the rule of law, human rights and freedoms, and ensure

the free development of each person as a condition for free
development of all people.
Civil society is a set of subjects of social life (individuals, their
communities, organizations) which realize their private interests and

which are interrelated with each other in the process of economic,
social, political and spiritual activity.
Civil society is internally controversial; it is dominated by the

private interest, coincides and faces the activities of various subjects.
These contradictions are the driving force in the development of civil
society and its progress.

The state, by contrast, realizes a common interest, unites the
activities of individuals and social groups into one whole, seeks to
achieve a compromise between different subjects of civil society. It

plays the role of a factor, constraining the development of
contradictions to a level, capable to destroy the civil society.
The civil society and the state complement one another as the
interdependent elements of a single social system. The state of civil

society, its needs and goals determine the main features and social
purpose of the state. The qualitative changes in the structure of civil
society, the content of the main areas of its activities inevitably leads

to a change in the nature and forms of state power.
At the same time, the state, having relative autonomy in relation
to the civil society, can significantly affect its state. This influence, as
a rule, is positive, and it is aimed at supporting stability and

progressive development of civil society. Although history knows the
opposite examples.

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