This paper investigates the interplay between pernicious polarization, autonomy of civil society - here called civil society capture, and liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe from 2006 to 2020. In the absence of prior time-series data on pernicious polarization and civil society capture, this study built and analysed a dataset of these variables across the region, testing six hypotheses. The findings confirm that both pernicious polarization and civil society capture exhibited an increase during the study period across most CEE countries, the findings also confirm hypotheses linking polarization/civil society capture with democracy, revealing a negative correlation between these variables and liberal democracy. Moreover, a qualitative analysis conducted on four countries highlighted mechanisms through which polarization might contribute to democratic decline. Factors such as the depth of polarization, divisive rhetoric, and sociocultural divides emerged as crucial elements in potentially fuelling democratic backsliding.

Online communities have become commonplace in the modern world, developing on nearly every website and application. These communities can develop on a singular website, e.g. forums like Reddit and 4Chan where like-minded people can discuss and share ideas and websites like Facebook and Twitter which capitalize on social interactions; they develop around gaming platforms, e.g. Xbox live chat or Minecraft servers; and they can develop on applications solely developed to engage with other people, e.g. Internet relay-chatrooms and TikTok. The communities formed from these online services may differ in purpose but ultimately all function within the realm of an online community. I pose the question “How do governing structures in online civil society organizations influence individual behaviors?”, and conducted a case study on the Villoux Server System, an online service based on gaming but rooted in community-building that operates within an institutional framework similar to structures among geographically-bound communities.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there exists a near total consensus regarding the desirability of democracy. Many see the push towards democracy as encouraged by the increasing interconnectednessusually referred to as 'globalization'-between countries and peoples. Civil societies around the world are often regarded as the primary beneficiaries of globalization. Simultaneously, they are frequently represented by policy-makers, academics and development practitioners, as the new agents of democratization, particularly in the struggle against authoritarian regimes. This thesis seeks to answer two sets of questions: 1. Does civil society contribute to democratization? If so, how? And if not, why not? 2. Does globalization help or hinder the democratization process? In response, this thesis argues that civil society plays a key role in contributing to democratization, but it does not necessarily do so. Indeed, certain sections of civil society playa role in maintaining authoritarianism. Secondly, globalization both helps and hinders democratization. This is nothing to do with globalization's intrinsic qualities, but rather due to the way that actors within civil society perceive glo baliza tion. I present here a case study of Egyptian human rights NGOs, as a sector of Egyptian civil society struggling for democratic governance. Following a survey of the current literature on globalization, democratization and civil society, Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical and conceptual elements of the thesis, which are based on Gramscian notions of hegemony and civil society. Chapter 2 locates the historical problem of democracy in Egypt within the hegemonic power relations that have developed in the post-colonial era. This chapter represents the emergence of Egypt's first human rights organization as pushing the boundaries of the hegemonic consensus. Chapter 3 demonstrates that, despite the shared origins and objectives of the Egyptian human rights NGO community, different human rights NGOs pursue different strategies in attempting to bring about democratization. These different strategies depend upon the positions of human rights activists vis-a-vis the post-colonial hegemonic consensus. Chapter 4 examines the way in which human rights NGOs conflict with other sections of civil society because of the former's resistance to the hegemonic consensus. Furthermore, civil society opposition to human rights NGOs leads to calls for their control and, consequently, the strengthening of authoritarianism. Chapter 5 examines further how authoritarianism may be strengthened as a result of globalization. It also considers the problems faced by human rights NGOs and other civil society actors in building a wide-based coalition for democratization that challenges the bases of the hegemonic consensus underpinning authoritarianism. In the final chapter, I suggest some implications for this research inrelation to how we conceive politics and political strategies in the struggles of non-state groups for democratization

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation looks into the processes by which neoliberalism is mutating with various local and global discourses in order to transform urban space for marginalized street hawkers in the Global South, specifically Delhi, India. Following the current engagements in geographic literature on neoliberalism that focus on the contextually embedded character and the path-dependent process of the spread of free market ideas, I make free market advocacy think tanks--a rather unknown and under-investigated accomplice to this process--my main entry point. Corporate funded think tanks are often found advocating a neoliberal doctrine of free markets, minimal government intervention, and privatization. A self-professed civil society organization, the Center for Civil Society (CCS) in Delhi is one of the first neoliberal, national and foreign corporation funded, advocacy think tanks in India and one of its many agendas is to counter the popular belief that neoliberalism is harmful for the urban poor such as street hawkers. Various NGOs, social workers, scholars, academicians, and think tanks including CCS came together to form the National Policy of Street Vendors, 2009 (NPSV), one of the first policy proposals in modern India to tackle the problems of urban spaces of street vending. Through my investigations I wish to highlight the neoliberal attitudes that are concealed in this policy regarding street hawkers. By bringing these neoliberal undertones to the forefront, this dissertation discusses how this so called “pro-hawking” policy that is being pushed to be implemented in the majority of Indian cities is in fact hostile to hawkers. I demonstrate this fact by explaining that NPSV and its proponents view space as a capitalist commodity and are attempting to transform the rich social spaces of Indian city streets into hollow container spaces of capitalist production and consumption. In this way, this dissertation connects macro spaces of governance such as city streets to the micro spaces of governmentality such as think tanks like CCS.

The rise of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) over the past several decades has caught the attention of activists and advocates around the world. Their work has contributed to a host of policies, initiatives, and legal doctrine that continues to shape public discussions of the issue as well policy responses to the problem at the international, national, and local level. According to a number of international monitoring organizations, Mexico stands as the prime destination for trafficked children and the country in the Western Hemisphere with the highest degree of CSEC. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over the summer of 2010 in Mexico City, I explore the relationship between the work of civil society advocates campaigning against CSEC and the struggles, successes, and issues they face working in the context of Mexico City. My findings reveal important developments in the work of advocates as well as the revelation of critical areas in their work that deserve further investigation and research. At the same time, my research gives some insight into the way advocacy groups carry out their agendas in the face of a weak Mexican state, intensifying violence related to escalated war on drugs, and the inherent difficulties associated with working at the level of civil society. / text

This thesis seeks to evaluate the progress of regional community building in Southeast Asia, which has been undertaken by the Association of Southeast Asians (ASEAN). The thesis analyses the extent to which there has been a shift from policies and processes associated with “old regionalism” (state-security-economic centred regionalism) towards those which are associated with “new regionalism” and a regional community (the widening of regionalism to non-state actors, and expansion of regional cooperation into new areas, and regional solidarity). The first half of the thesis demonstrates the persistence of “old regionalism,” based on a tendency to differentiate others as an external security threat in Thailand's bilateral relations. This tendency is driven by a deeply embedded historical legacy of differentiation, which is pursued by state actors for domestic political interests, as well as on-going bilateral disputes, and a militarised border. The second half of the thesis tests the significance of “new regionalism,” based on three case studies on civil society participation in regional community building. These case studies demonstrate how “new regionalism” is significant in form, rather than in substance, and how progress in community building is mainly driven by the more democratic ASEAN member states. Visible progress in community building includes the emergence of ASEAN-CSO meetings, an ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and a transnational civil society network (TCSN), which is increasing society's regional awareness and society's participation in regionalism. However, substantive progress is lacking, due to the region's political diversity and the prioritization of regional unity over the realization of a people-oriented ASEAN Community. Thus, ASEAN community building is empty in substance, due to the continuation of politically motivated differentiation and border insecurity, symbolic meetings between states and CSOs, a powerless regional human rights body, and the remaining gap between regional declarations and policy implementation.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree: Masters in Development Theory and Policy in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of Witwatersrand / South Africa enshrines itself as a democratic developing country that adheres to the principles of good governance and acknowledges the role that civil society participation in state affairs can have. The purpose of this study was to establish the role and effectiveness of NEDLAC’s social dialogue process through evaluating the contribution of civil society participation in the Development Chamber; and to understand the relationship between NEDLAC’s social dialogue model and the World Bank ideology on civil society participation in policy making. The study highlights that NEDLAC remains one of the key vehicles for social dialogue in South Africa and there have been positive contributions by civil society participation in the NEDLAC process. It takes its premise from the ILO model of social dialogue, whilst it also adapts from the World Bank ideology of civil society participation by including civil society in the process, through the Development Chamber. However, the effectiveness of civil society participation in policy making through NEDLAC is at risk due to the impact of the changing socioeconomic environment. In many ways this study highlights contradictions in South Africa’s social dialogue process. The Development Chamber is not being optimally used for its intended purposes as representativity and accountability of the community organisations are a concern; whilst there is an increasingly active civil society, demonstrated by civil unrest, which is not part of this social dialogue process.

Ph.D.--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / The Kenyan political landscape has, since the 1990’s, been tumultuous and characterised by multiple political and social struggles centred on embedding a new constitutional order. This thesis is a qualitative case study of the Ufungamano Initiative, a powerful movement involved in these struggles between 1999 and 2005. Emerging in an environment of deep societal divisions and multiple sites of struggle, the Ufungamano Initiative is a remarkable story of how and why previously disjointed and disparate individuals and groups came together in a ‘movement of movements’ to become a critical contender in Kenyan constitutional reforms. The movement utilised direct citizens’ actions and was directly in competition with the Moi/KANU state for control of the Constitution Reform Process. This direct competition and challenge, posed a legitimacy crisis on the state led process forcing an autocratic and intolerant regime to capitulate and open up space for democratic engagement of citizens in the Constitution Reform Process. But the Ufungamano Initiative is also a story of the limits of social movements. While holding so much power and promise, movements are limited in their ability to effect fundamental changes in society. Even after substantial gains in challenging the state, the Ufungamano Initiative was vulnerable and agreed to enter a ‘coerced’ merger with the state-led process in 2001. The merger dissipated the Ufungamano Initiative’s energy. This study therefore speaks to the power and limits of social movements in effecting fundamental changes in society. Applying a socio-historical approach, the study locates the Ufungamano Initiative within the broader social, economic and political struggles to argue that contemporary constitutional reform struggles in Kenya were, in Polanyi’s (1944) terms, double movement type of societal counter-movements to protect itself from an avaricious economic and political elites. Engaging the political process model, this thesis analyses seventy in-depth interviews and secondary data to explain the dynamics in the rise, operations, achievements and decline of the Ufungamano Initiative as illustrative of how movements emerge, take on a life of their own and sometimes metamorphose into phenomenal forces of change, or just fizzle out.

Após levantar um breve histórico do conceito de sociedade civil na tradição filosófica ocidental, com especial atenção para as obras dos jusnaturalistas (Hobbes, Locke e Rousseau), Hegel e Gramsci, buscando identificar quais transformações sofreu este conceito ao longo do tempo, apresentamos um panorama do cenário historiográfico norte-americano, apresentando suas principais escolas, com ênfase em três momentos: a tensão entre amadores e profissionais, que estabelece o campo profissional; a hegemonia progressista da nova história (década de 1930), e a transição do consensualismo para o período multifacetado em que surge a história das minorias. Por último, analisamos 41 artigos da American Historical Review, de 1947 a 1992. O objetivo do trabalho foi compreender quais os sentidos atribuídos a este termo, pensando qual sua relação com os clássicos que pensaram este conceito, bem como com os interesses ideológicos em jogo no cenário intelectual norte-americano. / After a brief review of the concept of civil society in the Western philosophical tradition, with special attention to the works of natural law philosophers (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau), Hegel and Gramsci, and seeking to identify how this concept has changed over time, we present an overview of North American historiography and its main schools, with emphasis on three points: the tension between amateur and professional historians establishing the professional field, the hegemony of the progressive \"new history\" (1930s), and the transition period from consensualism to the appearance of multi-faceted history of minorities. Finally, we analyze 41 American Historical Review articles from 1947 to 1992. The aim is to understand the meanings attributed to the expression civil society, reflecting upon their relationship with the classics that forge this concept, as well as with the ideological interests within the American intellectual scene.