The European Union as a normative power: the case of Armenia

Fostering a Democratic Culture: Lessons for the Eastern Neighbourhood

“…Research The traditional focus in academic literature on formal organisations extends to donor approaches to civil society and fostering democratic culture. The EU approach in post-Soviet countries has been criticised for focusing predominantly on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which are not necessarily representative of the population at large; and for paying inadequate attention to spontaneous civic activism and informal civic networks (Loda, 2017). It is thus recommended that the EU and other external donors give more attention to local spontaneous forms of civic activism and indigenous informal networks (Loda, 2017).…”

“…Research on Georgia finds that NGOs are considered to represent a social elite, rather than genuine civil society (Loda, 2017). Other research on Georgia also finds that Western donors did not provide much incentive for civil society development, resulting in a civil society that was subsequently co-opted by the new leadership and not deeply committed to democracy (Stefes & Paturyan, 2021).…”

“…Other research on Georgia also finds that Western donors did not provide much incentive for civil society development, resulting in a civil society that was subsequently co-opted by the new leadership and not deeply committed to democracy (Stefes & Paturyan, 2021). Some research on Armenia finds that NGOs are not necessarily representative of the wide population or directly linked to democratisation (Loda, 2017); whereas another study argues that since Armenia's civil society did not receive as much funding for democracy promotion as Georgia, its civil society was able to develop in a more genuine fashion with closer connections to the larger public, and without co-option by the political elite or an agenda directed by donors' preferences (Stefes & Paturyan, 2021).…”

“…While much literature and donor programming on democratic consolidation focus on formal organisations and institutional conditions, recent research argues that in the case of CEE, attention needs to be given more to activists, citizens and informal networks (Pietrzyk-Reeves & McMahon, 2022;Loda, 2017;Ekman et al, 2016). Activism in the region is often driven by concrete, everyday concerns of citizens and the use of more informal modes of mobilisation and spontaneous "bursts" of civic activism (Pietrzyk-Reeves & McMahon, 2022).…”