"Inclusion" in the broad sense of access to, and participation in, public policy and services has been lacking in the majority of developing countries---whether authoritarian or democratic---due to highly skewed political, social and economic power structures. To understand why this tends to be the case, the dissertation provides a political economy model for understanding civil society, arguing that the evolution of civil society and its potential as a vehicle for inclusion are conditioned by the economic imperatives in place and the state prerogatives. More specifically, I question the extent to which the neoliberal model allows civil society to fulfill this role, by examining the impact of Social Funds (SFs), a key social policy institution created and promoted solely under the neoliberal model, on civil society in Egypt and Bolivia. / I argue that neoliberalism severely limits the possibility of: citizenship construction, achieving development synergy between the state and civil society, or strengthening the latter. These limitations are structural, inherent to the neoliberal development model and the changes it has brought about economically and politically. The research shows how these changes have manifestations within the state, the economy and civil society and more specifically social policy. Just as important, there are limitations intrinsically grounded in the structures found in many developing countries, pre-neoliberal changes. Such structures, I argue, do not allow new institutions like SFs to push forward such an ideal three-way relationship among the economy, state and civil society. Rather than strengthening civil society and creating development synergy, SFs are shown to be just an attempt to give neoliberal policies a human face and subdue any potential for structural changes. / More generally, by contrasting the dynamics of civil society under neoliberalism in a developing country with a democratic regime (Bolivia) with those of a soft authoritarian regime (Egypt). I argue that a dichotomous framework, which sees democracy as antithetically opposed to authoritarianism is not necessarily appropriate to the analysis of developing countries. The cases illustrate that the state and civil society, under two-different regime types, continue to share a number of similarities.

This study investigates how different kinds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), operating in different national political contexts, perceive and use the Internet as a political space. The political space concept, as defined here, encompasses two dimensions of Internet use: one external, where organisations use the Internet for online activism and campaigning, and one internal, signifying organisational use of the Internet to promote engagement and interactivity with members and/or supporters. Another question raised is whether Internet use for political purposes by NGOs varies between different national political contexts. Moreover, do the organisations believe that the Internet has affected their political influence to any extent? The empirical data consist of the results of two surveys, one directed primarily to American NGOs, the other explicitly comparative, analysing NGOs in Sweden and the USA. Furthermore, content analyses of NGO websites have been conducted and additive indexes constructed. The findings of the study suggest that, overall, the Internet is most important to the studied organisations as a space for external political initiatives. There were, however, important differences in this regard, which could be related to the organisations’ national political contexts. For example, the American NGOs have oriented their websites primarily towards relatively superficial forms of member involvement, while the Swedish NGOs provided more interactive grassroots features on their websites. Regarding political influence, the Internet arguably has the potential to make the most dramatic difference by reinforcing the organisations’ offline political activities. The present results indicate that, despite the possible converging effect of the Internet on NGO political activism, national political culture exerts an inescapable influence on how the Internet is used as a political space by the studied organisations.

This study tries to understand the internal dynamics of the civil society organizations in Turkey on the experiences of three CSOs: the Ankara Branches of KADER, MAZLUMDER and IMO by focusing on the intra&ndash / organizational practices (the decision making processes, elections, general meetings, division of labor, basic conflicts and divergences, the disagreements, the way of deliberation and consensus). It tries to shed light on the transformative potential of the CSO&rsquo / s in public sphere as civil organizations themselves in time both in the sense of their political stances and organizational structure. The research was designed in the form of a case study including both the depth interwiews and participant observations. In this framework, ten depth-interviews were made with members having different qualities for each of these CSOs and participant observations were realized in the general meetings, elections and activities of these organizations. Since the aim of this study is to understand the contribution of the CSOs to the public sphere, the research findings were interpreted and considered basically in the light of the two main theoretical positions: the deliberative (Habermas) and agonistic (Laclau and Mouffe) democracy. The study espoused a post-structuralist conception of democracy combined with a weakened model of deliberation and dialogue pointing out the requirement of the existential publicity of man (Arendt) in the world. In this context, this study tries to discuss the following questions within the framework of the public sphere experience of the three CSOs throughout the thesis. Is the concept of civil society a proper concept for understanding the peculiar experience of Turkey (with reference to the historical context of civil associational life in Turkey and the recent civil resurrection)? Do civil organizations have the capacity to serve for deepening and consolidation of democracy in public sphere? Are these civil organizations democratic and participatory with regard to their intra-organizational structures and decision-making processes? And, more importantly, do they have any capacity to influence the process of democratic transformation in Turkey?

La présente recherche doctorale prétend, depuis la philosophie politique, penser les relations entre les individus et la collectivité, au moyen de l’exploration de trois catégories utilisées en référence aux systèmes démocratiques actuels, à savoir les catégories de « citoyenneté », de « société civile » et d’ « État ». Le sens de la recherche repose sur l’approfondissement, depuis une perspective démocratique, de la valeur épistémologique des trois catégories lors d’une réflexion sur les limites et les possibilités offertes par ces systèmes politiques à l’égard des individus, du point de vue de différents courants théoriques. De même, notre recherche, dans une tentative d’appliquer les résultats nés de l’exploration des concepts, esquisse un portrait de la société espagnole contemporaine, à travers lequel nous avons tenté de montrer ses relations avec le système démocratique, en se fondant sur les liens établis entre les individus et la collectivité sur le territoire espagnol, à partir des trois catégories. / This PhD investigation pretends to analyse the relations between the individuals and the communities by usage of political philosophy and taking into consideration the examination of three categories:citizenship, civil society and the state. These categories are usedwhen one refers to contemporary democratic systems.The purpose of this thesis is to study in depth the cognitive value of three above mentioned categories from democratic perspective and when thinking of the limits and opportunities that the political systems offer to the individuals in different theoretical trends. At the same time this investigationis trying to apply the results extracted from the examination of the concepts and drawsa picture of the contemporary Spanish society by showing its relations with democratic system. This system is presented from the perspective of the links that are established between the individuals and the community in Spain and looking into the three categories. / La presente investigación doctoral pretende, desde la filosofía política, pensar las relaciones entre los individuos y las colectividades, mediante la exploración de tres categorías utilizadas para referirse a los sistemas democráticos del presente, esto es, las categorías de «ciudadanía», «sociedad civil» y «Estado». El sentido de la misma es el de profundizar, desde un punto de vista democrático, en el valor epistemológico de las tres categorías a la hora de pensar los límites y las posibilidades que ofrecen dichos sistemas políticos para con los individuos desde diferentes corrientes teóricas. Al tiempo, nuestra investigación, en un intento por aplicar los resultados extraídos de la exploración de los conceptos, traza un retrato de la sociedad española contemporánea, mediante el que se intentan mostrar sus relaciones con el sistema democrático desde la perspectiva de los vínculos que se establecen entre los sujetos y la colectividad en el país ibérico a partir de las tres categorías.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-07-08T13:18:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 antonianadiasdefilippo.pdf: 1941434 bytes, checksum: 04813e5d9261aea1a6c2735cca56c397 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-08T13:19:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 antonianadiasdefilippo.pdf: 1941434 bytes, checksum: 04813e5d9261aea1a6c2735cca56c397 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-08T13:19:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 antonianadiasdefilippo.pdf: 1941434 bytes, checksum: 04813e5d9261aea1a6c2735cca56c397 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-24 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / Esta dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar a relação entre Estado e organizações da sociedade civil na política de assistência social, tendo em vista a particularidade do Município de Juiz de Fora, à luz das concepções marxistas de Estado e sociedade civil. Tal relação vem sendo construída desde tempos anteriores às formas sistemáticas de proteção social e permanece até os dias atuais, sob formato bem peculiar, principalmente com as modificações no papel do Estado, direcionadas pelo fortalecimento de preceitos liberais.Para tanto, estabelece uma contextualização das políticas sociais e centraliza a discussão no contexto brasileiro do pós Constituição Federal de 1988, marco histórico da assistência social enquanto política pública de direito.Neste mesmo pós Constituição Federal de 1988, o Brasil passa pela dualidade entre ampliação da cidadania e entrada do ideário neoliberal, que tem, entre tantas de suas facetas, a desresponsabilização do Estado. Aliada à desresponsabilização do Estado está a produção de um ideal de sociedade civil solidária. Deste contexto, tem-se que a relação entre Estado e organizações da sociedade civil é compreendida, hegemonicamente, enquanto “terceiro setor”, conceito este carregado de ideologia e contrário às concepções marxistas de Estado e sociedade civil. / This thesis aims to analyze the relationship between state and civil society organizations in social assistence policy, in view of the particularity of the municipality of Juiz de Fora, in the light of Marxist conceptions of state and civil society. This relationship has been built since times earlier than systematic forms of social protection and remains until the current days, under very peculiar shape, especially with the changes in the role of the state, directed by the strengthening of liberal principles.To do so, establishes a context of social policies and focuses the discussion in the context of the Brazilian Federal Constitution after 1988, the landmark of social assistence as a public policy by law.In the same post 1988 Constitution, Brazil is the duality between the expansion of citizenship and entry of the neoliberal ideas, which has, among its many facets, the deresponsibilization of the state. Coupled with the deresponsibilization of the state is the production of an ideal civil society solidarity. In this context, is that the relationship between state and civil society organizations is understood hegemonically as "third sector", a concept loaded of ideology and contrary to Marxist conceptions of state and civil society.

The United Nations (UN) has invested increasing levels of effort in recent decades to cultivate a more effective, diverse and democratic institutional culture via the inclusion of and interaction among international civil society organizations (CSOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to supplement the traditional role of states as the primary transnational actors. The principle vehicle for the UN-civil society dynamic is the consultative status (CS) program within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), wherein a diverse range of nearly 5,000 transnational organizations ostensibly participate. This research examined patterns of participation and the nature/level of CSO/NGO involvement within the UN, with particular focus upon ECOSOC. In examining participation patterns, the research identified patterns related to geographical/proportional representation among developed and developing regions and world regions in general and also as related to policy/issue areas represented. In terms of involvement, the research sought to assess the types and degree of contributions being made by CSOs/NGOs in association with the UN. To address both areas, the research employed a two-prong methodology including (1) a detailed analysis of the UN’s online integrated Civil Society Organizations (iCSO) database and (2) a comprehensive survey questionnaire mailed to a randomly-selected sample of 10% of all organizations holding consultative status with UN-ECOSOC. The findings challenge the assumption that UN association with international civil society has realized pluralist ideals in that substantial variations were found to exist in the representation of policy/issue areas, with some areas far better represented than others. Perhaps more importantly, the research revealed that only a minority of organizations in the ECOSOC-CS program appear to be actively/regularly engaged with the UN, with a large minority of CS-accredited organizations engaged only periodically or to a more limited extent, and a substantial minority not participating/interacting in any way. Rather than exemplifying pluralism within the constructivist tradition, findings imply support for liberal institutionalist theories in that decades-long expansion of IGO influence has facilitated a corollary expectation of expanding international civil society and an associated expectation of linkages between transnational governance and democratic institutions on the one hand and transnational civil society on the other as a standardized norm.

In this master thesis I deal with civil society organizations in Tunisia with a focus on women's rights. Firstly, I present the conceptual frameworks I work with and I set the indicators on the basis of which I assess the organization. I present context in which organisations are operating, I describe the history of Tunisia and the state of women's rights in Tunisia. First I focus on the period before the first democratic elections, between 1987 and 2011, when president Zin Abidin bin Ali ruled. Then I move on to the period after the first democratic elections, which took place in 2011, until 2018. Subsequently, I compare the functioning of civil society organisations with a focus on women's rights in these two periods. I discuss what organizations have to deal with during their operation, what influences them and what problems they concentrate on within the framework of women's rights. I collect information and data using document analysis, and then analyze the data with open coding.

This diploma thesis deals with the influence of Pionýr membership in the mentioned years on civic engagement, after the Velvet revolution in Pardubice region. The theoretical part will introduce theories of democratic and non-democratic civil society, the theory of opportunities for participation, the theory of disillusionment, or the theory of post-communist civil societies, on which the work will be based. In the second, empirical part, the organization Pionýr itself, the types of individual memberships, activities, organizations and more, will be defined. Subsequently, a quantitative analyse will be demonstrated by the method of narrative analysis and in-depth interviews with respondents, in each attempt to find a connection, between a former membership in Pionýr and civic engagement after the Velvet revolution. The aim of the work, is to find out whether the experience with civic engagement in a non-democratic regime, positively or negatively affects the involvement of the people even after the Velvet revolution within the democratic regime. Range: 81 pages; Key words: democratic civil society, non-democratic civil society, Pionýr, civic engagement, political engagement

This thesis focuses on civic associations operating in social sphere in the Czech Republic. Social sphere is in regard to the used methodology in the thesis delimited by the social service definition specified in Act No. 108/2006 Coll. The aim of the thesis is to analyze services provided to civic associations in the social sphere, to map the range of provided services, and to highlight the position of civic associations as social enterprises in the social sphere. The theoretical part deals with terms related to civil society, civil society organizations, social enterprises, and social services. The empirical part is then based on data earned from Register of Social Service Providers and provides comprehensive overview of the size and spheres the civic associations as social services providers operate in.

Sociala problem beskrivs ofta som komplexa och för att möta utmaningar i samhället betonas vikten av samverkan mellan olika aktörer. Förändringar i det svenska välfärdssystemet har möjliggjort olika typer av samarbeten mellan den offentliga sektorn och civilsamhället. Idéburet offentligt partnerskap (IOP) är en överenskommelse om samarbete mellan civilsamhällets organisationer och den offentliga sektorn, i syfte att uppnå ett allmännyttigt samhälleligt mål. Eftersom formen är relativt ny och samverkan lyfts fram som viktig för socialt arbete, har syftet med denna studie varit att undersöka hur ideella organisationer och förvaltningar i Uppsala kommun upplever att samverkansformen IOP fungerar. Teoretiskt vägleds studien av teorier om samverkan samt byråkratisering. Studien antar en hermeneutisk utgångspunkt och baseras på sju kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från den offentliga och idéburna sektorn samt kompletteras med en dokumentstudie. Studiens resultat visar att aktörerna väljer att teckna IOP-överenskommelser då IOP bidrar till att uppnå gemensamma mål genom att parterna tillför viktiga resurser till varandra. Dessutom blir relationen mer jämställd och bidrar till ökad dialog samt långsiktig finansiering för organisationerna. Resultatet visar även att det generellt är svårt att mäta effekter av IOP och att IOP medför både utmaningar och nya möjligheter. Utmaningar som finns med samverkansformen är att arbetet är administrativt tungt, tar mycket tid, att det inte finns några tydliga riktlinjer och att det finns en risk för att det blir personbundet. Å andra sidan medför IOP även nya möjligheter såsom bättre insyn hos varandra, en bättre kontakt och att parterna kompletterar varandra för att kunna hjälpa Uppsalas medborgare och uppnå samhällseffekter.