by Cheng Chi-man, Francis. / Thesis submitted in: December 1998. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-199). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / List of Figures --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION / Background of This Study --- p.1 / Aims and Objectives --- p.6 / Conceptual Framework --- p.7 / Civil Organization --- p.12 / Civil Society --- p.14 / State-Society Relationship --- p.15 / justification of this study --- p.20 / A Methodological Note --- p.24 / Chapter Outline --- p.26 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- CONCEPT OF CIVIL SOCIETY REVISITED / Introduction --- p.30 / Western Tradition --- p.35 / Political Society and Civil Society --- p.36 / Economic Society and Civil Society --- p.37 / Paradoxes of Civil Society --- p.39 / Western Definition of Civil Society --- p.43 / Eastern Europe Tradition --- p.45 / Civil Society in Poland --- p.45 / Chinese Tradition --- p.48 / Philosophical-moral Reflection in China --- p.50 / Historical-sociological Reflection in China --- p.53 / Concluding Remarks --- p.56 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- "STATE OVERWHELMED SOCIETY: STATE- MERCHANTS RELATIONSHIP FROM EARLY TO MIDDLE QING," / Introduction --- p.59 / Autocratic Legacies of Qing Dynasty --- p.61 / Merchants under Autocratic Tradition --- p.64 / Co-hong System： Representation of State-Merchants Relationship --- p.69 / Guilds of Merchant： A Long Haul --- p.76 / Concluding Remarks --- p.80 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- "GENERAL BACKGROUND OF MERCHANTS' ORGANIZATIONS AT CANTON IN THE LATE QING,1896-1911" / Introduction --- p.84 / Popular Type of Merchants' Organization --- p.86 / Semi-official Type of Merchants' Organization --- p.89 / Concluding Remarks --- p.93 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- ANALYSIS OF CANTON GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: REALIZATION OF MERCHANTS' AUTONOMY? / Introduction --- p.96 / Autonomy over Election and Decision Making Process --- p.98 / Autonomy over Finance --- p.103 / Autonomy over Activities --- p.106 / Functions of the Chamber --- p.108 / Participation in Public Affairs --- p.114 / Concluding Remarks --- p.120 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX: --- "DISCUSSION OF POLITICAL-ECONOMIC- CULTURAL DYNAMIC: AN EXPLANATION FOR RISE OF INTERPENETRATED MODE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN CANTON IN THE LATE QING,1896-1911" / Introduction --- p.125 / Decline of State --- p.128 / Acceleration of Commercialization --- p.135 / Integration of Merchant Culture --- p.142 / Concluding Remarks --- p.149 / Chapter CHAPTER SEVEN: --- CONCLUSION / Concluding Review of Study --- p.154 / Suffocation of Emerged Civil Society --- p.164 / Achievement of Idea of Civil Society --- p.167 / Limitations of Study and Future Development --- p.169 / Appendices --- p.171 / Bibliography --- p.177 / Chinese Bibliography --- p.193 / Glossary --- p.200

This thesis tries to analyze the role of civil society within the process of democratization in Turkey with special reference to the impact of civil society policies of the EU on the internal operating styles of civil society organizations in Turkey. In this respect, a critical evaluation of the said issue was tried to be put forward in the sense that the extensive discussions on the concept of civil society were examined and gathered with the observations and empirical evidence gained on the subject in order to reach an answer on the very nature of civil society-democracy relationship. In doing this, the purpose was to uncover the reasons behind the recent popularization of the concept as an indispensable precondition of democracy and to question whether certain circumstances exist under which the term may rather harm than enable the process of democratization. Within this framework, the consideration of the civil society policies of the EU implemented in Turkey was seen as all the more necessary because of the fact that the process of Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership has major implications for not only the process of democratization in Turkey, but also on the development of civil society as a significant part of this process. In accordance with the purpose of the study, in order to understand the extent of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey and the impact of the EU in that sense, a field research was conducted in Ankara, Turkey with the participation of 46 CSOs active mostly in the fields of women, children, disabled, human rights and environment. Through the field research, the main purpose was to understand the dynamics of the internal operating styles of those organizations, their views concerning the relations between CSOs as well as between the CSOs and the state on the one hand, to measure the extent to which their participation to civil society programs of the EU influence their intra-organizational structures on the other. According to the results of the field research, over the experience of 46 participant organizations, an analysis of the extent to which the EU-implemented civil society programs serve for the building of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey was tried to be made.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 394-420).

Social capital research has traditionally been conducted in western and Christian settings as a precursor of changes such as democratization and development. This paper focuses on Islamic religious engagement and its potential to foster social capital. The model presented here is designed to suggest whether the Islam's influence occurs through doctrinal channels, or through Islam's capacity to organize social structures. The analysis conducted is a linear regression model with measures of social capital as dependent variables and measures of religious engagement as independent variables. The analysis is conducted on data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey. Results suggest that religious engagement and social capital have both belief and behavioral elements that should be treated as separate entities in quantitative research.

The study of civil society participation in peace negotiations has become increasingly popular. Although research has stressed the importance of coordination among civil society groups, no study has so far been conducted that studies the impact coordination among civil society groups can have on the quality of a peace agreement. This thesis aims to fill this gap by asking How does the extent of coordination among civil society groups during peace negotiations impact the quality of a peace agreement? Springing from the premise that civil society groups are aware of underlying conflict causes, this thesis argues that a high extent of civil society groups’ coordination leads to a highquality peace agreement and that this is particularly so when a civil society actor is facilitating the coordination. By applying the method of structured focused comparison, these hypotheses are tested on Guatemala, El Salvador, and Liberia. The empirical findings do not show support for the hypotheses. A variety of factors were discovered during the analysis that could have hampered the impact of civil society groups’ coordination or could hold alternative explanatory power and thus stress the need for further research.

The thesis deals with the topic of operating space for civil society organizations in the Republic of Moldova during the period from March 2017 to February 2019. The main aim of the thesis was to determine whether the case of Moldova corresponded to the concept of shrinking space for civil society defined by Saskia Brechenmacher in her paper Civil Society under Assault in 2017. Shrinking or closing space, which occurs more and more frequently in different countries throughout the world, can be defined on the basis of three main areas: tactics, impact and international reaction. The operational space for the civil sector in the Republic of Moldova differed from Brechenmacher's concept partially in the areas of tactics and international reaction and more significantly in the area of impact due to fact that that the restrictive legislation remained in the phase of a bill. As Brechenmacher's concept does not cover all aspects of operating space in Moldova, a supplementary chapter has been added. The main difference from Brechenmacher's concept was the aspect of "simulated collaboration". State officials pretended that the civil society was involved in the decision-making process, but in fact they ignored its views.

The paper deals with the current form of civil society in the Czech Republic on the basis of classic and contemporary concepts. The importance, conditions and other aspects of the civil society are explained, which can help in describing these problems. A description of history of the Czech civil society should show on which its present form is based since the beginnings of civil society in Europe via its origin in the Czech Lands up to characteristics of the civil society after the revolution. The main part of the paper includes opinions of Václav Havel and Václav Klaus as principal participants in the discussion on civil society in the Czech Republic and comparison of their concepts. The analysis of the contemporary Czech civil society should define the form of civil society in the Czech Republic and its characteristics and circumstances even in comparison with both the leading personalities´ views. Both strong and weak points of the Czech civil society are described as well as its future potential dangers and prospects.

The thesis deals with the impact of European Voluntary Service (EVS) programme on civic competences of its participants and their active participation within civil society, both Czech and European. The text is structured into three chapters. The first chapter deals with a definition of the concept of civil society and its historical development, historical development and present situation of Czech civil society and definition of European civil society. The second chapter first explains the phenomenon of volunteering in general and then continues with explaining of functioning and principles of EVS. The third chapter is a result of qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with six former participants of EVS. At first, the personal story of each participant is written. According to the stories, the cumulative analysis and conclusions of the thesis are formulated.

This thesis examines the role of civil society in promoting good governance and development in Zimbabwe. This is done through a case study of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Specifically, the thesis looks at the role of constitutionalism as a tool in promoting good governance and development by situating the Zimbabwean struggle for constitutional reform within the context of an unprecedented socio-economic and humanitarian crisis that engulfed Zimbabwe at the beginning of 2000. One of the central questions explored in this thesis is that of the value of the concept of civil society in understanding African post-colonial situations in general and the Zimbabwean situation in particular. The thesis looks at the history of constitutionalism in order to assess if the Zimbabwean crisis could be understood within the context of a constitutional crisis. Therefore, the thesis ventures into the complex dynamics of state-civil society relations while at the same time examining the formation, structure and programmes of the NCA. This is meant to highlight how the NCA’s internal governance system, its leadership style and accountability worked as well as if it reflected good governance or not. An analysis of NCA’s relationship with donors is also presented in order to dispel or validate claims that civil society is just a front for western interests to effect regime change in Zimbabwe. Of critical importance in this study is how civil society (represented by the NCA) interacted with the government and the opposition political parties. The NCA actively participated in opposition politics coming in the open to urge its supporters to vote for the opposition and later ditched the opposition when they had disagreements but their reputation as impartial actors had been destroyed. The thesis concludes by questioning the strategies that are used by civil society in engaging with the government and that in their present structure they should not be antagonistic to the state but should work in tandem with the state for the attainment of good governance and development. Civil society organisations should be politically neutral in their pursuit of developmental goals and ought to practice what they preach by being democratic and accountable themselves. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

A major objective of the Human Rights Act (HRA) was to bring about a culture of rights in the UK. Its introduction fore-grounded questions about the use of rights to advance social justice issues and was the impetus for this research. At about the same as the Act came into effect another law, Section 55, an antithesis of what the HRA promised, was passed which forced thousands of asylum-seekers into destitution. Section 55 became a major battleground pitting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) against the Home Office in a three-year long campaign, characterised by rancour and viciousness, unlike any in recent memory. The NGOs, with the new HRA as a key part of their strategy, defeated the legislation. This thesis, a bottom-up case study of rights at work, examines the role of rights in the campaign to assess (1) if rights brought about social changes and (2) is a culture of rights developing in the UK? The paper first considers the various theoretical frameworks on rights and social change and analyses various case studies of rights at work. Context is important; therefore, it also examines how asylum has come to be framed in present-day discourse, with an overview on the evolution of welfare as a coercive measure. The study, framed against current events of the day, concludes that while test-case challenges eventually defeated Section 55 welfare as a coercive measure continues. In short, the HRA has proven to be ineffective against illiberal policies and the development of a culture of rights, insofar as asylum is concerned, has stalled. And it has happened with deliberation by a government determined to be tough on asylum irrespective of the HRA.