Download or read book Building Civil Society and Democracy in New Europe written by Sven Eliaeson and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-03-26 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European enlargement process culminating in 2004 was - as a follow-up to die Wende and the implosion of the Russian empire - an event of the same magnitude as 1815 and 1919. Like 1918-19, it was an “exit into history”, a momentous event in post-Westphalian Europe. Even if acceptance of ten new countries was premature, it was appropriate to the moment history provided. The presence of the “New kids on the block” meant both problems and prospects. The end of the cold war meant the fall of the iron curtain – but a mental remnant of the curtain remains, in terms of attitudes regarding civility, corruption, and transparency, and expectations for democratic politics. Several of the “new” countries are “late children of 1848”. For them, entering NATO was more important than joining the EU, and also preceded EU-membership. Poland is bigger than the other 2004 countries together and has a heavy historical legacy. It is - as Germany used to be - imprinted by its special path between East and West and fear of being encircled by enemies. Although the Building of Civil Society and Democracy in countries in transformation can draw on experiences from the countries already within the EU, there is no primrose path for EU-integration. It is, moreover, an irony that the new member states, as a result of the expectations for post-Communist politics, build institutions of a kind that are no longer sufficiently efficient for “old” Europe. The new countries became a full-scale experiment in rule by experts: now by neo-liberals instead of Communists. A common European public sphere and civil society might emerge, but its form remains visible only at the horizon.
Download or read book Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post Soviet Armenia written by and published by Routledge. This book was released on with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New Politics of European Civil Society written by Ulrike Liebert and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, civil society has played a pivotal role in Europe, from the demise of Communist rule to the reunification of Europe, followed by the expansion of the single market to the reconstitution of democracy in the enlarged European Union. European civil society has emerged as a social space between EU governance and the citizens of the member states, populated by non-state agents claiming to represent, speak for or participate on behalf of the most varied social constituencies in EU decision making. This book consolidates European civil society research by re-viewing its conceptual, normative and empirical-analytical foundations. With contributors from political science to sociology to law, it captures the evolving practices of European civil society that stretch across the national (local), the European and the global realm. Developing an analytical framework that highlights the interplay between civil society building and polity building from above as well as from below, within the legal and institutional framework of the EU, they examine whether and how civil society can contribute to making democracy work in normative democratic theoretical perspectives. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of civil society, European politics, political science and sociology.
Download or read book Civil Society Before Democracy written by Nancy Gina Bermeo and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together historians and political scientists, this unique collaboration compares nineteenth-century civil societies that failed to develop lasting democracies with civil societies that succeeded.
Download or read book Civil Society and the State written by John Keane and published by London ; New York : Verso. This book was released on 1988 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the origins and development of the distinction between civil society and state and its contemporary relevance in relation to households, labour markets, trade unions, voluntary associations, political parties, and state bureaucracies.
Download or read book Building Democracy and Civil Society East of the Elbe written by Sven Eliaeson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the idea of civil society and how it is being implemented in Eastern Europe. The implosion of the Russian empire fifteen years ago and the new wave of democratization opened a new field of inquiry. The wide-ranging debate on the transition became focused on a conceptual battle, the question of how to define "civil society". Because totalitarian systems shun self-organization, real existing civil society barely existed East of the Elbe, and the emergence of civil society took unusually complex and puzzling forms, which varied with national culture, and reflected the deep historical past of these societies. This insightful text relates the concept of civil society and developments in Eastern Europe to wider sociological theories, and makes international comparisons where appropriate. It discusses particular aspects of civil society, and examines the difficulties of establishing civil society. It concludes by assessing the problems and prospects for civil society in Eastern Europe going forward.
Download or read book Civil Society and Governance in Europe written by William A. Maloney and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research presented in this book based on new primary data demonstrates that in terms of civil society actors adapting to the European political space the Europeanization process has an uneven development. This innovative book integrates top-down approaches for the study of relationships within the developing EU-multilevel system (i.e., the consequences of Europeanization for civil society at the local level) and bottom-up approaches (i.e., the consequences of civil society for the process of European integration and democracy in the EU). The contributors argue that exploration of these recursive linkages requires a rethinking of the relationships between (local, national, and trans-national) civil society on the one hand, and multi-level governance on the other. In analyzing the opportunities for civil society associations to contribute to European integration and decision-making from various perspectives, the following findings are presented, amongst others: engagement with and confidence in the EU (compared to national institutions) is relatively weak among associational members party elites play a key gatekeeper role in the European space the EU and interest groups have had limited success in stimulating the development of citizen engagement, civil society and social capital in various countries. In the rapidly expanding field of research on democratic decision-making in Europe, this book will be welcomed by academics and scholars alike at postgraduate levels and above. Experts working in the field of European decision-making (such as lawyers and lobbyists) who are looking for conclusions based on high-quality empirical research will also find much in this book to engage them.
Download or read book Building Europe democracy and civil society from Russia to Balkans written by Denis Rolland and published by Editions L'Harmattan. This book was released on 2011 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Le Conseil de l'Europe, institution créée en 1949, rassemble 47 pays et ne dépend pas de l'Union européenne. Sa vocation politique a été dynamisée par la désagrégation de l'Europe communiste. Il promeut des Ecoles politiques ou Ecoles de la démocratie qui suscitent des cycles de rencontre et de formation de jeunes acteurs politiques et animateurs de la société civile dans les seize pays, des Balkans au Caucase. (Des articles en français et en anglais).
Download or read book Civil Society and Democracy Promotion written by T. Beichelt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions from experts on democracy promotion, this volume examines civil society development and external civil society promotion in post-socialist Europe. It focuses on countries with a failed or deficient process of democratic consolidation looking at unintended consequences of external democracy promotion on civil society development.
Download or read book Civil Society and Activism in Europe written by William A. Maloney and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role of civil society organizations in several advanced European democracies: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Specifically the book focuses on how voluntary organizations contribute to civic and democratic health and assesses the impact of different organizational types on social capital. Building on Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies and Social Capital and Associations in Europe (2007), this volume seeks to widen and deepen the analysis by introducing new data on activists and combining it with the organizational data and the population data. It evaluates the impact of the organizational context on individual activity profiles and attitudes and values of activists and provides a unique assessment on the contribution that voluntary associations make to civil and democratic society. Part One deals with the consequences of associational involvement for several attitudinal and behavioural orientations and Part Two expands the scope of the effects of voluntary associations towards European attitudes. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of civil society, democracy, political participation, politics and sociology.
Download or read book Democracy and Civil Society in Eastern Europe written by Paul G. Lewis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents an informed and wide-ranging examination of issues surrounding the development and future prospects of civil society in Eastern Europe. The contributions, mostly by leading East European scholars, relate the key concept of civil society to the processes that led to the collapse of communism and which bear on prospects for the establishment of a democratic order throughout the region. The development of the concept is related to questions like those surrounding economic policy and reform and the women's movement.
Download or read book Reflections on the Future of Democracy in Europe written by Council of Europe. Directorate General of Political Affairs and published by Council of Europe. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication contains papers presented at a conference, held in November 2004 in Barcelona and organised by the Council of Europe. The purpose of the conference (held to mark the end of the three-year integrated project "Making democratic institutions work") was to discuss issues relating to the challenges and opportunities facing governments in Europe to strengthen democratic reform and encourage greater public participation. Topics covered include: promoting inclusive elections; financing of political parties; popular initiatives and referendums; and how modern communication technologies can affect the democratic process.
Download or read book New Democracies and Old Societies in Europe written by György Széll and published by Peter Lang Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten years after the break down of the Berlin Wall, the withering away of real existing socialism but also of the welfare state, Europe is preparing for its re-unification. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have already entered the NATO, nine more countries from the former Soviet Block and the Mediterranean are preparing themselves to enter the European Union. After hundreds of years of war the era of peace and welfare which seemed to be so near has vanished in new wars and atrocities. Fundamentalisms and globalisation question democracy as such. Nowadays the new term is good governance. The nation-state is stronger than imagined, and seems even to become the only refuge against global shareholder capitalism. Will the old civil societies be able to develop new forms of democracy in the heritage of our past?
Download or read book International Democracy and the West written by Richard Youngs and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2004-11-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book adds to debates over the international dimensions of democratic change by studying the policies and actions of three sets of Western actors: namely, governments, multinational companies, and international NGOs. This actor-based triangular approach responds to observations that the strategic, economic, and social aspects of international democracy have rarely been studied in a combined, holistic fashion. During the 1990s, Western governments, multinational companies, and civil society organizations all came to engage more notably in debates over democratic trends. But were they genuine when they professed a concern with democracy in developing countries? Which of these dynamics - governmental, commercial, or social - was the most influential in propelling efforts to encourage democratization and which helped explain the limits of democracy's international reach? Did political, economic, and social actors form a broad network of international democratic momentum, or did their respective perspectives increasingly diverge? Exploring these questions, the book presents extensive empirical material relating to Western policies in a number of developing regions, covering the period from the mid-1990s to 2003. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Download or read book Building Democracy written by Geoffrey Pridham and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International factors have had a great effect upon the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe according to the contributors to this book. Furthermore they maintain that the international dimension has not always been a favourable one.
Download or read book The Power and Limits of NGOs written by Sarah Elizabeth Mendelson and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text assesses the impact of non-governmental organizations' efforts to build democratic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Case studies provide a portrait of the mechanisms by which ideas commonly associated with democratic states have evolved in formerly communist states.
Download or read book The Politics of Civil Society Building written by Kees Biekart and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strengthening civil society may be all the rage in the international donor community, but what does it mean in practice? This seminal work critically examines the political aspects of civil society building and the role of non-governmental development aid agencies during recent democratic transitions in Central America.
