The state of civil society participation in Parliament

L Muntingh

doi:10.4314/ldd.v16i1.2

Informal networks and interstitial arenas of power in the making of civil society law in Serbia

Sociologija ◽

10.2298/soc1504571m ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 57 (4) ◽

pp. 571-592 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marek Mikus

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

The State ◽

Informal Networks ◽

Anthropological Perspective ◽

Legal Reforms ◽

Civil Society Participation ◽

The Social ◽

The Relationship ◽

Stable Network ◽

Law Making

This paper adopts an anthropological perspective on law to examine the social processes surrounding the making of a set of recent civil society laws in Serbia. In line with the dominant liberal assumptions about civil society involvement as a way of making policy- and law-making more representative and democratic, there has been significant civil society participation in these legal reforms. Their stated aim was to bring greater ?efficiency? and ?transparency? to the activities of civil society and its relationships with the state. They were a part of the greatly intensified law-making activity in Serbia that reflects an ideology of legalism linked to the global neoliberal turn to depoliticised ?governance.? My analysis reveals that these reforms contradicted their own objectives since they were consistently dominated by a small and relatively stable network of organisations and individuals connected by informal relationships. It also shows that, through their protracted domination over the making of civil society law, these actors created a new political arena in the interstices of the state and civil society in which they pursued their own political and ideological agendas. These findings challenge the assumptions about the relationship between civil society participation and democratisation as well as the ideology of legalism.

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Implementation of Pancasila Values in Civil Society Participation Against Covid-19

PUSKAPSI Law Review ◽

10.19184/puskapsi.v1i1.23596 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Bimo Aryo Nugroho ◽

Margaretha Hanita

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Economic Crisis ◽

Social Life ◽

The State ◽

Health Crisis ◽

National Integration ◽

Political Situation ◽

Civil Society Participation ◽

National Life ◽

And Control

Covid-19 pandemic significantly affects the community’s social life. It does not only result in a health crisis but also an economic crisis. This condition requires a collaboration between the governments and the community as national integration. Recent political situation exhibits a decrease in the tense relationship between the state and the civil society. A transformation is necessary to compromise. Accordingly, the state and civil society should cooperate, help each other, and control each other. Pancasila, as an open ideology, should be implemented as a national life guideline to obtain the state goals amid this pandemic.

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European Civil Society or Civil Society of the European Countries?

RUDN Journal of Political Science ◽

10.22363/2313-1438-2016-3-61-70 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 61-70

Author(s):

A A Kanunnikov

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Civil Society ◽

European Integration ◽

The State ◽

European Countries ◽

Nation State ◽

The European Union ◽

Integration Process ◽

Social Sphere ◽

Civil Society Participation

This article is devoted to the study of civil society in the European Union. It shows the existence of two terms - “European civil society” and “civil society in Europe”. There is a vagueness of the term “European civil society” because it does not disclose the principle of belonging to a “European civil society” - a socio-cultural or geographical. There is a doubt about the possibility of the application of the civil society concept developed to describe the realities at the level of the nation-state, to the description of the phenomenon at a transnational level, for example, in the case of the European Union. The article shows three periods of civil society participation in the European integration process. The article concludes that is premature to consider the European civil society as an autonomous social sphere, opposing the state.

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The Implementation Review Mechanism of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC)

Brill Research Perspectives in Transnational Crime ◽

10.1163/24680931-12340015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (2-3) ◽

pp. 39-54

Author(s):

Ian Tennant ◽

Prem Mahadevan

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Organized Crime ◽

Critical Mass ◽

The State ◽

Transnational Organized Crime ◽

Civil Society Participation ◽

Review Mechanism

Abstract When the UNTOC came into being in 2000 at a signing ceremony in the Sicilian city of Palermo, it was hoped that the convention would empower civil society to fight transnational organized crime (TOC), alongside the state. This article examines the Implementation Review Mechanism, agreed by the Convention’s Parties in Vienna in 2018, which formalises the process by which civil society will be able to engage in monitoring and improving the implementation of the Convention. The article analyses the provisions of the mechanism pertaining to civil society participation, and finds that the UNTOC Review Mechanism, despite being an achievement of sorts, remains weak as it pertains to the opportunities for civil society to influence its outcomes. But despite its drawbacks, there are opportunities to be seized. Civil society, especially as regards those individuals and organizations working on organized crime issues, is evolving and growing. The mechanism exists where nothing similar has been seen before in the TOC sphere, and there is a critical mass of States parties that are willing to open the door to civil society with the aim of optimizing the outcomes of the mechanism. It is now up to civil society to organize itself for the upcoming challenge.

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