The Selective Closure of Civic Space

Conny Roggeband, Andrea Krizsán

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Scholars and NGOs have been raising alarms about the increasing political restraints that civil society organizations face globally. In this paper, we argue that closure is in fact a selective mechanism: governments attempt to reorganize civic space through a dual process of selective in- and exclusion of civil society organizations. Civil society organizations identified as critical of or even anti-government face obstruction and restraints, whereas simultaneously the space and state support for organizations identified as pro-government is expanded. Governments instrumentalize certain civil society organizations to their own benefit: they are sponsored and used to influence the realm of civil society in ways that directly legitimize state power and maintain an appearance of democracy. We illustrate our claims by discussing the reorganization of civic space in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe through the case of women’s rights activism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-33
Number of pages11
JournalGlobal Policy
Volume12
Issue numberS5
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Selective Closure of Civic Space'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this