Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, December 10, 2007

Civil Society in Russia

Learning to Give, is an educational project of The League. It's designed to teach people about civic action and philanthropy. (The League is very shy about identifying itself and its sponsors.)

In any case, there is a not-well-written little essay, Russia—Civil Society? that describes the beginnings of civil society and offers a number of links to more information.

"To understand if Russia is or isn't a civil society, a definition of civil society must be determined. But first, an understanding that the creation of civil society underpins democracy must be acknowledged (Hudson 2003). James Richter writes civil society refers to an overlapping network of civic associations that binds a population into a society autonomous of the state (Richter 1998, 1). He also states that the third sector is an integral part of civil society but is not identical to it. Whereas civil society encompasses all formal and informal associations, the third sector refers more specifically to the formal, functionally differentiated and frequently professional non-profit organizations that interact with state and market actors (Richter 1998, 1).

"Historically, Russia has never had a working civil society..."




YaleGlobal Online offers this essay, Russian Civil Society Will Find It Harder to Breathe

"Despite rising foreign criticism of its plan to muzzle civil society organizations, fear is growing that the Putin government may be returning to the authoritarianism of the past...

"The bill will have three primary effects. First, it will limit Russian citizens’ constitutional right to create unregistered but formalized civil society groups...

"Secondly, the bill will tighten controls over all existing Russian NGOs...

"Thirdly, particularly tough measures will be applied to foreign NGOs operating in Russia..."




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