What is the role of the State in the development of civil society? Rather than a simplistic, oppositional relationship, the state's influence has typically been to shape, not suppress, civil society. Through its direct and indirect structuring of incentives, the State promotes a particular pattern of civil society organization; political institutions structure the “rules of the game,” which in part determine who plays and who flourishes. This pervasive influence can be overt or subtle. Legal, regulatory, and financial institutions and instruments create varying incentives for the organization of civil society by the processes of group formation and development and institutionalization of social movements. Rules on what kind of groups are allowed to form have clear implications, but less obvious are the implications of bulk-mailing discounts for nonprofit organizations, which promote mass memberships, or a difference in access points for interest groups in the policy-making process. In making this argument, this chapter joins an emerging trend of more sophisticated understandings of how the organizational dimensions of civil society are influenced by State action and political institutions (e.g., Carapico 1998; Skocpol 1999; Levy 1999; Chessa 2000).

State structuring of incentives accounts for the pattern of civil society development found in Japan today, with State actions promoting one type of group at the same time they have hindered another. Specifically, small, local groups such as neighborhood associations have been promoted by the State; large, independent, professionalized groups such as Greenpeace have faced a much more hostile legal environment.