External Democracy Promotion and Divided Civil Society—The Missing Link

Hahn-Fuhr, Irene; Worschech, Susann

doi:10.1057/9781137291097_2

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Such accounts emphasize the structural role of civil society as a sphere beyond the state and the market, which generates the normative context within which politics and economics operate (Alexander, ). Others examine civil society as an actor in itself whose participation in public life is crucial for the quality of democratic order either as a milieu where citizens meet, deliberate, find solutions to common problems and build trust among each other or as a check on government policies and a safeguard against unwarranted state intrusion in private life (for the distinction see Hahn‐Fuhr and Worschech, , pp. 16–22).…”

Section: Societal Empowerment As An Alternative To Elite Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, Beichelt et al . () have examined the pathways through which external actors can promote democracy via civil society, considering the various functions which civil society can perform (Hahn‐Fuhr and Worschech, ) and the stage of the democratization process at which a country finds itself (Beichelt and Merkel, ). While a comprehensive conceptual investigation of external donors' support for civil society has been undertaken, the existing literature is less explicit about the indirect ways through which the external environment can affect societal entrepreneurship and mobilization for democracy.…”

Section: Societal Empowerment As An Alternative To Elite Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

Noutcheva

2015

J of Common Market Studies

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The Europeanization literature predominantly credits the empowerment of pro-reform political elites through the EU's incentives for the democratization of non-EU countries. The existing studies under-emphasize the societal dimension of the EU's impact and the normative context in which the EU's leverage is applied. Taking a societal perspective, this article examines societal empowerment as an alternative to elite empowerment and proposes four mechanisms of EU influence on democratization through societies taking into account the EU's structural power and actorness, and considering their effects on the societal sphere and societal actions. Applying the mechanisms to a tough case for societal mobilization for democracy -Bulgaria -the article shows how the EU, through representing a legitimate model of democratic governance, has created a strong pro-reform societal constituency that can sustain the democratic dynamic. The article also demonstrates the relevance of cross-national diffusion processes for pro-democracy societal mobilization.

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Section: Societal Empowerment As An Alternative To Elite Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Societal Empowerment As An Alternative To Elite Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

Noutcheva

2015

J of Common Market Studies

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“…Over the years, it became central within EU external action, following an already established ‘global political project of building democracy and peace around the world’ (Beraia et al, 2019). Despite the EU’s attempts at defining ‘civil society’, 6 this remains a contested concept characterised by ‘acute definitional fuzziness’ (Edwards and Foley, 1996: 3, in Hahn-Fuhr and Worschech, 2014: 15). In its neo-Tocquevillian understanding, which dominates (Western) public discussions, it is characterised by being distinct from the government and the market.…”

Section: Civil Society As a Means To An End In Eu External Relations5mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…External support to civil society has been problematised by a number of scholars, which departed from the focus on norms diffusion to expose the dysfunctionalities generated by the ‘marketisation’ of civil society (Choudry and Kapoor, 2013; Cooley and Ron, 2002; Hahn-Fuhr and Worschech, 2014; Hulme and Edwards, 2013; Marchetti, 2017). Although these contributions expose how foreign funding, including the EU’s, affects the motivations, claims and accountability of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), they are overwhelmingly based on rationalist premises.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The EU’s hegemonic interventions in the South Caucasus: Constructing ‘civil’ society, depoliticising human rights?

Luciani¹

2020

Cooperation and Conflict

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This article draws upon poststructuralist and postcolonial theories to examine the European Union’s (EU’s) policies of human rights promotion in the South Caucasus – notably, the EU’s engagement with local human rights activists and organisations in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Contrary to most literature, which has been concerned with policy (in)effectiveness, this article is interested in problematising the discursive foundations of this EU-civil society ‘partnership’ in the realm of human rights promotion, as well as in retrieving the agency of actors who are ‘at the receiving end’ of EU policies. It is argued that the discursive construction of ‘civil’ society as a ‘good-Other’ of the EU-Self serves as a means to depoliticise the EU’s interventions, aiming at the approximation of ‘transitioning’ countries to the EU’s human rights standards. Although the hegemonic relation requires subaltern actors to perform the ‘civil’ society identity, processes of hybridisation and subversion arise as external interventions interact with local realities and meanings. Building on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations, the article shows how the hegemonic identity of ‘civil’ society is negotiated by South Caucasus ‘not-quite-civil’ actors striving for local legitimacy, financial survival or ownership of their human rights work.

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“…Finally, reflecting NGOs’ dependence on international donors (Fagan, ; Hahn‐Fuhr and Worschesch, ), the availability of funding may shape their mobilization choices by acting as an additional incentive or constraint to implement certain projects.H3 Where targeted funding is available, NGOs are more likely to adopt an external mobilization format.…”

Section: Beyond External Incentives: Teaching Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational Learning and Civil Society Empowerment in the EU Enlargement Process

Wunsch

2018

J of Common Market Studies

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Strengthening civil society as a domestic safeguard against the backsliding of reforms is a cornerstone of the EU enlargement process. Support provided by the EU, however, was shown to have had limited effects in triggering civil society empowerment in candidate countries. Adopting a novel perspective, this article demonstrates that the diffusion of mobilization formats, via transnational learning between activists from different enlargement rounds, facilitated the empowerment of non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in countries joining later. Drawing on comparative evidence from Serbia and Montenegro, it shows how such transfers of external models enabled NGOs to feed into the ongoing membership talks. Their influence over substantive outcomes, however, was limited by a lack of domestic responsiveness, while funding availability constrained the operation of the transferred formats. These findings shed light on an overlooked dimension of learning in the context of Europeanization and feed into the debate on civil society empowerment in enlargement countries.

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External Democracy Promotion and Divided Civil Society—The Missing Link

Cited by 11 publications

References 31 publications

Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

The EU’s hegemonic interventions in the South Caucasus: Constructing ‘civil’ society, depoliticising human rights?

Transnational Learning and Civil Society Empowerment in the EU Enlargement Process

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