The majority of social scientists agree that there are chief socio/political/economic sectors in any country. Society can be analysed as a product of the public sector (state), as the private sector (market) and as the civil sector (non-governmental and non-profit sector).
What distinguishes a civil sector from private and public sectors is the fact that the organisations it includes have been established on the basis of shared values and interests of a group of citizens and of those who support them.