However, the ‘public/private’ divide is sometimes used to express a
further and more subtle distinction, namely, between ‘the political’ and
‘the personal’. Although society can be distinguished from the state, it
nevertheless contains a range of institutions that may be thought of as
‘public’ in the wider sense that they are open institutions, operating in
public and to which the public has access. This encouraged Hegel (see
p. 59), for example, to use the more specific term, ‘civil society’, to refer to
an intermediate socio-economic realm, distinct from the state on one hand
and the family on the other. By comparison with domestic life, private
businesses and trade unions can therefore be seen to have a public
character. From this point of view, politics as a public activity stops only
when it infringes upon ‘personal’ affairs and institutions. For this reason,
while many people are prepared to accept that a form of politics takes
place in the workplace, they may be offended and even threatened by the
idea that politics intrudes into family, domestic and personal life.