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Bryan Garsten's essay suggests that liberal polities should be understood as offering "refuge" from overweening public power. While there are sound arguments to support this approach, it downplays the affirmative exercise of public power in the liberal state and leads to policy proposals—such as a more generous stance toward refugees—that may not make sense when taking into account both the right of political communities to put the needs of their members first and the considerations that have led to rising doubts throughout Western democracies about accepting large numbers of refugees at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the relevance of nongovernmental associations in a civil society. Reasons for interest in civil society; Aggregations of shared belief as a phase of political association; Correlation between political and civil associations; Use of and reference to the concepts of historical philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville.