Civility theory

Summary

Volker von Prittwitz

Civility is mutual respect in shared responsibility.

Actors think and act within more or less civil relationship logics and action types. The resulting action processes are fundamentally open; therefore, it is worthwhile to engage socially and politically.

Unilateral relationship logics (interest, power or friend/enemy logic) and action types (negotiation, vertical domination, war) exhibit a comparatively low level of civility, while multilateral logics of mutual commitment, fair procedures of two-dimensional coordination and multidimensional forms of integration exhibit a comparatively high level of civility - see the following table.

All relationship logics and action types can be combined with one another, especially unilateral forms of thought and action on the one hand and multilateral forms of thought and action on the other. Unilateral relationship logics (interest, power, friend/enemy logic) reinforce each other, as do coordination forms of secure and developed civility.

While the general theory of civility contains general concepts, typologies and models, the special theory of civility focuses on specific areas of action, such as law, state, politics, economy, religion, science, games and sports, family and neighborhood.

Civility theory was first introduced in 2018 as the theory of civil modernity and has been continuously developed since then. You can freely read and download the 2025 (General Civility Theory), 2023 (General and Special Civility Theory), and 2018 versions of the theory in PDF format.