Why do some backsliding incumbents effectively co-opt civil society, and others fail? This paper introduces a theory of civic consciousness, contending that informal and apolitical civic groups, as opposed to their more formal or political counterparts, are less likely to think of themselves as belonging to ‘civil society’ and therefore do not always recognize their civic resources. I demonstrate how government threats on associational freedom increase civil society's self-awareness of its social capital—and its willingness to apply these resources in support of democratic causes.  As evidence, this paper draws on originally collected data comprising the universe of Polish civil society between 2011 and 2025, a prominent period of democratic erosion and partial recovery. I demonstrate how the illiberal PiS government was more likely to financially target formal and opposition groups, while their informal and apolitical counterparts remained untouched. I show that this was partially driven by informal and apolitical civil society's increased self-awareness of its civic resources; those groups were less likely to engage in optional government activities during autocratization—and more likely to do so after backslider exit. Further, via an original civil society-level survey experiment, I demonstrate that, when facing government threats, informal and apolitical civic groups are more likely to engage in a range of pro-democratic actions. Altogether, this paper illustrates how improved civic consciousness facilitates new autonomy and democratic commitment among previously overlooked corners of civic life.