Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia

Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia PDF Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134076762
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia

Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia PDF Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134076762
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description


Building a Civil Society

Building a Civil Society PDF Author: Steven C. Soper
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442664460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The most passionate advocates of Italy’s unification in the nineteenth century possessed an almost limitless faith in the benefits of civic association. They also shared a common concern: once Italian unification was achieved and various freedoms were established, would ordinary Italians naturally become responsible, progressive citizens – especially after centuries of foreign rule, regional division, and economic decline? Most unification advocates doubted that their fellow citizens could form a modern, progressive civil society on their own, or that a vibrant association life would develop from the ground up. Building a Civil Society is the first book-length English-language study of associational life in nineteenth-century Italy. Drawing on extensive research in published and unpublished documents – including associational records, newspapers, periodicals, government documents, guidebooks, exhibition catalogues, memoirs, and private letters – Steven C. Soper provides a complex account of Italian liberalism during Europe’s age of association. His study also raises important questions about the role that associations play in emerging democracies.

Building Civil Society in Authoritarian China

Building Civil Society in Authoritarian China PDF Author: John W. Tai
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319036653
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
How is modern civil society created? There are few contemporary studies on this important question and when it is addressed, scholars tend to emphasize the institutional environment that facilitates a modern civil society. However, there is a need for a new perspective on this issue. Contemporary China, where a modern civil society remains in a nascent stage, offers a valuable site to seek new answers. Through a comparative analysis of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in today’s China, this study shows the importance of the human factor, notably the NGO leadership, in the establishment of a modern civil society. In particular, in recognition of the social nature of NGOs, this study engages in a comparative examination of Chinese NGO leaders’ state linkage, media connections and international ties in order to better understand how each factor contributes to effective NGOs.

Civil Society

Civil Society PDF Author: Michael Edwards
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745659055
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
Since its publication in 2004, Civil Society has become a standard work of reference for all those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action in the contemporary world. In this thoroughly-revised edition, Michael Edwards updates the arguments and evidence presented in the original and adds major new material on issues such as civil society in Africa and the Middle East, global civil society, information technology and new forms of citizen organizing. He explains how in the future the pressures of state encroachment, resurgent individualism, and old and familiar forces of nationalism and fundamentalism in new clothes will test and re-shape the practice of citizen action in both positive and negative ways. Civil Society will help readers of all persuasions to navigate these choppy waters with greater understanding, insight and success. Colleges and universities, foundations and NGOs, public policy-makers, journalists and commissions of inquiry – all have used Edwards’s book to understand and strengthen the vital role that civil society can play in deepening democracy, re-building community, and addressing poverty, inequality and injustice. This new edition will be required reading for anyone who is interested in creating a better world through citizen action.

Building Global Democracy?

Building Global Democracy? PDF Author: Jan Aart Scholte
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521140553
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
The scale, effectiveness and legitimacy of global governance lag far behind the world's needs. This path-breaking book examines how far civil society involvement provides an answer to these problems. Does civil society make global governance more democratic? Have citizen action groups raised the accountability of global bodies that deal with challenges such as climate change, financial crises, conflict, disease and inequality? What circumstances have promoted (or blocked) civil society efforts to make global governance institutions more democratically accountable? What could improve these outcomes in the future? The authors base their argument on studies of thirteen global institutions, including the UN, G8, WTO, ICANN and IMF. Specialists from around the world critically assess what has and has not worked in efforts to make global bodies answer to publics as well as states. Combining intellectual depth and political relevance, Building Global Democracy? will appeal to students, researchers, activists and policymakers.

Civil Society And The State In Singapore

Civil Society And The State In Singapore PDF Author: Carol Soon
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1786342480
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Set within the context of growing political pluralism and the increasing use of new communication technologies for social mobilisation, the Institute of Policy Studies organised a national conference on civil society in November 2013. This collection of the essays that were presented at or inspired by the conference provides nuanced analyses of the development of the sector in Singapore since the Institute's first such conference held in 1998. The first section of the book discusses the different philosophies and approaches that underpin how civic activists engage with the State; the second section examines some key forces of change that are re-shaping the sector; and, the third section sets out some emerging issues facing it. Combining insights from experts and civic activists themselves, this book proposes an agenda for the future development of the civil society in Singapore.

Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa

Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa PDF Author: John L. Comaroff
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226114149
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The essays in this important new collection explore the diverse, unexpected, and controversial ways in which the idea of civil society has recently entered into populist politics and public debate throughout Africa. In a substantial introduction, anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff offer a critical theoretical analysis of the nature and deployment of the concept—and the current debates surrounding it. Building on this framework, the contributors investigate the "problem" of civil society across their regions of expertise, which cover the continent. Drawing creatively on one another's work, they examine the impact of colonial ideology, postcoloniality, and development practice on discourses of civility, the workings of everyday politics, the construction of new modes of selfhood, and the pursuit of moral community. Incisive and original, the book shows how struggles over civil society in Africa reveal much about larger historical forces in the post-Cold War era. It also makes a strong case for the contribution of historical anthropology to contemporary discourses on the rise of a "new world order."

Challenges to Civil Society

Challenges to Civil Society PDF Author:
Publisher: Cambria Press
ISBN: 1621969665
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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The Rise of Global Civil Society

The Rise of Global Civil Society PDF Author: Don Eberly
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594032947
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Global news is generally bad news. On the surface, the story is about war, poverty, ethnic and sectarian strife. Democracy movements advanced by the U.S. government seem to be stalled or even reversed. Yet just below the surface, more hopeful trends are brewing. A new global awareness of the people at "the bottom of the pyramid" is summoning forth an unprecedented response to human need and suffering. It involves a shift from vertical to horizontal power that official aid agencies are only beginning to comprehend. Whereas twenty-five years ago, government aid accounted for 70 percent of all American outflows, today 85 percent of all outflows of resources come from private individuals, businesses, religious congregations, universities, and immigrant communities. If aid policy in the twentieth century relied on top-down bureaucracy dominated by policy specialists and elites, the twenty-first century is shaping up as an era in which citizens, social entrepreneurs, and volunteers link up to solve problems. U.S. military and economic power are basic components of America's presence in the world; but in an environment of rampant anti-Americanism, it is compassion that is America's most consequential export. Civil society, once the distinctive characteristic of American democracy, is now advancing across the globe, carrying with it new forms of philanthropy, citizenship, and volunteerism. Tens of thousands of voluntary associations are prying open closed societies from within, solving problems in new ways, and forming the seedbed for a long-term cultivation of democratic norms. Building Nations from the Bottom Up: The Global Rise of Democratic Society presents a sweeping overview of the forces now shaping the global debate, including citizen-led development projects, poverty-reduction strategies that substitute opportunity for charity, and electronically linked movements to combat corruption and autocratic rule.

Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, and Democracy in Nigeria

Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, and Democracy in Nigeria PDF Author: Darren Kew
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815653670
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
African nations have watched the recent civic dramas of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street asking if they too will see similar civil society actions in their own countries. Nigeria—Africa’s most populous nation—has long enjoyed one of the continent’s most vibrant civil society spheres, which has been instrumental in political change. Initially viewed as contributing to democracy’s development, however, civil society groups have come under increased scrutiny by scholars and policymakers. Do some civil society groups promote democracy more effectively than others? And if so, which ones, and why? By examining the structure, organizational cultures, and methods of more than one hundred Nigerian civil society groups, Kew finds that the groups that best promote democratic development externally are themselves internally democratic. Specifically, the internally democratic civil society groups build more sustainable coalitions to resist authoritarian rule; support and influence political parties more effectively; articulate and promote public interests in a more negotiable fashion; and, most importantly, inculcate democratic norms in their members, which in turn has important democratizing impacts on national political cultures and institutions. Further, internally democratic groups are better able to resolve ethnic differences and ethnic-based tensions than their undemocratically structured peers. This book is a deeply comprehensive account of Nigerian civil society groups in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Kew blends democratic theory with conflict resolution methodologies to argue that the manner in which groups—and states—manage internal conflicts provides an important gauge as to how democratic their political cultures are. The conclusions will allow donors and policymakers to make strategic decisions in their efforts to build a democratic society in Nigeria and other regions.