Reduced Scope for Action Worldwide for Civil Society

Abstract

Civil society actors have been increasingly watched over by state officials around the world in recent years. At the same time, they are exposed to increasing restrictions and repression. The civil society revolution of the 1980s has hence given way of late to a civil society counter-revolution. The debates on the restriction of civil society's scope for action are definitionally as well as empirically highly fragmented, and do not show a consistent picture. A generally applicable explanation for these developments does not exist to date, however. Since about 2010, the historical data of the V-Dem project has shown that civic room for manoeuvre has been increasingly restricted across all regions of the world. In the historical longue durée since 1946, this deterioration is still low. In addition, there are important yet thus far largely ignored differences between world regions. The fragmented picture is partly related to the lack of a yardstick that would define the legitimate limits of state regulation of civil society activity. Suitable instruments for measuring this phenomenon have been absent so far. If they did exist, they would have to meet three conditions: (a) reflect the diversity of state restrictions and repressive behaviour; (b) allow for comparisons across as many countries and historical periods as possible; and, (c) document restrictions and repression within one country in a uniform manner. Research therefore sees itself faced with two central tasks: One, data on the restrictions on civil society activity must be improved. Two, efforts should be made to analyse in particular those cases that have managed to buck the global trend or to fend off such threatening restrictions. "Nip it in the bud!" should be a highly venerated credo in politics. Civil liberties for civil society actors are of great importance both practically and theoretically in democratisation processes. Therefore, the demand for compliance with them must be a central component of a values-based foreign policy in liberal democracies.