Civil Society or NGOs Empowerment or Depoliticization? (original) (raw)
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In this article I approach the mobilization of women outside the realm of politics and inside NGOs in Romania and Poland, by analyzing some of the most important contextual elements that shaped their activities, interests or causes. In this manner, I present both similarities and differences between the communist legacies in the two countries, the effects of democratization and economic change, the civil society development and Western funding, elements of national culture, as well as transnational and EU actors. Issues such as interactions with the political sphere, network building and alliances, as well as differences between Western and Eastern countries are described throughout this endeavor. Conclusions are then drawn to stress out how different contextual elements have impacted women's movements in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.
After the collapse of Communism in Central and Easter-European countries, women, with less political and symbolic resources, organized themselves outside the political parties in various NGOs, so to persuade politicians to vote for laws against discrimination, domestic violence and for gender equality, and to influence equal opportunity policies and the democratization process. After more than two decades of economic, social and cultural transition, I analyse how women and gender based NGOs have been affected by external financial aid (European, Swiss and Norwegian) that generally supported their actions. The aim of this research is to understand to what extent and with what effects were these social funds implemented in Romania and Poland. In this regard, this article deals with the theoretical assumptions of sociological institutionalism, which suggest that the more NGOs are dependent on financial resources provided through targeted programs, the more they become isomorphic in their organizational structure. Distinctions are made in relation to NGOs and the civil society sector, so to provide an operational definition of non-governmental organizations and why these organizations are susceptible to change. The pressures that this sector encounters are further presented, in relation to the two countries under analysis so as to highlight both the similarities and the differences between these organizations and identify further directions of analysis.
Women’s NGOs in East and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union: The Imperialist Criticism
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In the 1970s and 1980s development programs in Africa, Latin America and Asia began to focus on non–governmental organizations (NGOs) as agents of political, economic and social change. In the 1990s in postsocialist east and central Europe and the former Soviet Union, an interest in the creation of a non–state sphere of civil society with active NGOs was high on the agenda of many international organizations, western states and funders, both state and private. Publicly, it was argued that increased citizen political participation was necessary for democracy and NGOs were an important vehicle for such participation.
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VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2018
What survival strategies, mechanisms and tactics do gender rights activists in Romania and Poland use, in an environment of changing foreign aid? In order to tackle these aspects, the first part of the article analyses the issue of foreign aid and civil society sector in the two countries. In the second part, the analysis focuses on organizational mechanisms and procedures aimed at replacing resources when donors withdraw aid. The last part discusses unintentional positive and negative effects of scarce financial resources on the local and national level and aid reduction from international donors. The article shows that regardless of financial aspects, activists struggle to keep organizations alive, while adopting similar strategies in different cultural and political contexts.
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NGOs and social movements: A study in contrasts∗
Capitalism Nature Socialism, 1998
From the perspective of research on new social movements, NGOs present a challenge because, like the social movements, they are also often grassroots organizations. They act autonomously, they form networks, and they pursue partially similar goals such as environmental protection, support of people in the developing countries, and gender equality. Social movements are bound to a national social space, even when they deal with global interdependence, or the "planetarization" of action. 1 They presuppose a national political public through which they are mediated and sometimes even created. The mobilization of protest is aimed at influencing local or national political institutions. Usually, specifically national forms of problems and conflicts are being attacked; for example, federal or state projects such as nuclear power plants, roads or airports. Even deeply rooted and enduring power mechanisms, such as sexism, appear in the context of national patterns of the welfare state and the political public sphere. As a result of language difficulties, scarce resources and different political circumstances, transnational cooperation between social movements is, as a rule, laborous and shortterm. 2 This has epistemological consequences: As a rule, social *Text translated by Dale Whinnett
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, August 2014, vol 25 (4), pp 949-967.
This paper is a contribution to the ongoing discussion concerning factors determining the development of civil society in a post-state socialist context. It examines the financial mechanisms designed to promote civic engagement in Poland, including EU grants and the so called 'percentage law' that allows citizens to support NGOs of their choice with 1 percent of their taxes. A detailed analysis of these mechanisms demonstrates that they are advantageous for some types of nongovernmental organizations and not for others. Instead of enhancing the situation of the whole sector, they tend to support NGOs that already have substantial resources and hold a strong position vis-à-vis the state. Moreover, organizations and groups fighting for issues considered to be controversial -such as women's NGOs advocating for the right to abortion or criticizing authorities for their lack of concern when it comes to violence against women -have limited chances to gain financial support from both the state and those sources that are independent from the state.