Civil Society Activism under Authoritarian Rule A Comparative Perspective Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science Series

This book examines how civil society actors operate under authoritarian constraints, and examines how this is linked to regime change.

This book moves beyond traditional notions of civil society and explains the complexity of state-society relations in authoritarian contexts outside the framework of democratization. Rejecting a wholly normative approach, the contributors focus on the whole range of civic activism under authoritarianism, from resistance to support for the political system in place. They explain how activism under authoritarianism is subject to different structures, and demonstrate how active citizens have tried to claw back powers of expression and contestation, but also sought to create a voice for themselves as privileged interlocutors of authoritarian regimes.

With a strong empirical focus on a wide range of countries and authoritarian regimes, this book presents cross-country comparisons on Spain, Portugal, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Cuba, Chile, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Afghanistan and Burma.

Civil Society Activism under Authoritarian Rule will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, comparative politics, civil society, authoritarianism and regime change.

1. Introduction. Civil society activism under authoritarian constraints Francesco Cavatorta 2. ‘Everyday citizenship’ under authoritarianism: the cases of Spain and Portugal Pedro Ramos Pinto 3. Dissident writings as political theory on civil society and democracy Marlies Glasius 4. Civil society activism and authoritarian rule in Romania and Chile. Evidence for the role played by art(ists) Caterina Preda 5.Contesting order in Tunisia: crafting political identity Laryssa Chomiak and John Entelis 6. Voice, not democracy. Civil society, ethnic politics and the search for political space in Central Asia Matteo Fumagalli 7. The influence of civil society activism on regional governance structures in the Russian Federation: cross-regional policy comparisons Karina Mikirova, Kathrin Mueller and JohannesSchuhmann 8. Entrenching authoritarianism or promoting reform? Civil society in contemporary Yemen Vincent Durac 9. Relations between professional associations and the state in Jordan Janine Clark 10. Building an ‘activist diaspora’ as a response to authoritarianism in Myanmar: the role of transnational activism in stimulating political reform Adam Simpson 11. Civil society in the digital age: how the Internet changes state–society relations in authoritarian regimes. The case of Cuba Bert Hoffmann 12. Reconsidering two myths about civil society. Evidence from Afghanistan Kevin Gray

Francesco Cavatorta is Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, Ireland.