Mapping the substance of the EU’s civil society support in Central Asia
From neo-liberal to state-led civil society
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6180773 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vera Axyonova (0000-0002-0721-9860, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), Fabienne Bossuyt (0000-0003-2702-9236, Ghent University) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 207-217 |
| Publication date | 2016-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communist and Post-Communist Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-067X • E-ISSN: 1873-6920 |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2016.06.005 |
| OpenAlex | W2462846567 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 13 |
Over the years, civil society empowerment has become an integral part of the European Union’s (EU) external and internal governance as a way to advance democracy and enhance citizen participation. While there has been increasing scholarly attention to the instruments and impact of the EU’s civil society support, so far there has been little research on the question what kind of civil society the EU actually promotes. This article intends to fill this gap by examining the substance of the EU’s civil society support in post- Soviet Central Asia, a region where various forms of civil society organizations (CSOs) exist. The findings reveal a differentiation between civil society types promoted in EU strategic documents and those that are supported in practice. While at the strategic planning level the EU seeks to strengthen civil society broadly construed, at the program implementation level the (neo-) liberal CSOs are the main beneficiaries. At the same time, the EU customizes its civil society assistance depending on the realities on the ground and at times finds itself empowering state-led civil society, while communal groups rarely benefit from the EU assistance schemes. This has severe implications for the advancement of citizen participation, considering that the actual grass-root initiatives are largely excluded from the EU assistance
Business · Civil society · Democracy · Empowerment · European union · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration
Local elite perceptions on the EU's agenda to promote regional cooperation in Central Asia
Negotiated Health Diplomacy
Growing Civil Society in Post-Soviet States
Is EU democracy promotion aligned with local media perception in Central Asia? Findings from content analysis
Natural Allies? External Governance and Environmental Civil Society Organizations in the EU’s Eastern Partnership
Navigating a ‘Shrinking Space’
Social Capital and Performance of Public Councils in Kazakhstan
The EU's hegemonic interventions in the South Caucasus
Exploring civil society perspectives on the situation of human rights defenders in the Commonwealth of Independent States
European Union, civil society and local ownership in Kyrgyzstan
Communal self-governance as an alternative to neoliberal governance
Bridge or base? Chinese perceptions of Central Asia under Europeanisation
European Union civil society support and the depoliticisation of Turkish civil society
Partnership on paper, pragmatism on the ground
Introduction to the special issue
Protest and participation in post-transformation Poland
Three. Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society
Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society
Civil Society and Peacebuilding
Introduction
The thorny path of civil society in Uzbekistan
NGO networks in Central Asia and global civil society
Political liberalization and democratization in the Arab world
Trends in Democracy Assistance
Governmentality and EU Democracy Promotion
NGOs, Civil Society, and the State in Bangladesh
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,6 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2025 (10) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |