This issue examines politics and civil society as a dynamic field of contestation, cooperation, and institutional negotiation. It invites scholarly contributions that explore how civic actors, organizations, and informal networks shape political life; how the state responds through regulation, co-optation, and partnership; and how public participation is reconfigured amid changing social, economic, and technological conditions.

Rather than treating “civil society” as a fixed moral category, the issue approaches it as a lived arena where values, interests, identities, and power relations are articulated and tested. Articles may engage with classical and contemporary political theory, empirical case studies, comparative perspectives, or interdisciplinary approaches that connect political institutions with civic practices.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: civic engagement and democratic consolidation; social movements and collective action; political participation and representation; state–society relations; public policy advocacy; media, digital activism, and civic discourse; political parties and community organizations; local politics and grassroots governance; pluralism, religion, and civic citizenship; and the ethics of civic action in contexts of polarization and inequality.

By bringing together conceptual clarity and grounded analysis, this issue aims to deepen understanding of how politics and civil society mutually constitute one another and how civic energies can both expand and constrain democratic possibilities.