*CIVIL society, *CHARITIES, *PRESSURE groups, *INTERNAL revenue law
Abstract
The author examines the ways in which civil society is shaped by the state through economic and legislative restraints and privileges. It has been asserted in one paper that civil society in the U.S. is conditioned in ways that tend to favour charities over political advocacy groups, since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax code reserves the most favourable treatment for a type of civil society organization called the 501(c)(3) organization. The author also compares the composition of civil society in the U.S. and in Sweden.