Legitimacy and activities of civil society organizations

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play an active and noteworthy role in governance, both at the national and international level. Three questions arise: First, how do CSOs exercise their advocacy, what repertoires, strategies and resources do they use? Second, to what degree are they legitimized to do so? Third, are there systematic differences between member and non-member CSOs, respectively between policy fields? Based on a survey of 60 exemplary CSOs covering four distinct international-level policy making fora, we will inquire into these questions. The central finding is that membership CSOs neither differ substantially from non-member CSOs in their roles and strategies of dealing with International Organizations, nor do they differ in other aspects of legitimacy, such as transparency or inclusion of beneficiaries. There are no systematic patterns in CSOs properties or behavior which correspond to policy fields. -- Zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen (ZGO) spielen im modernen Regieren eine wichtige Rolle, sowohl im Staat als auch auf internationaler Ebene. Drei Forschungsfragen stehen im Mittelpunkt dieses Papiers: Erstens, wie genau nehmen ZGO am Regierungsprozess teil und welche Einflussstrategien, Ressourcen und Handlungsrepertoire nutzen sie dabei? Zweitens, wie steht es um die Legitimation dieser Organisationen und ihrer Aktivitäten? Drittens, verhalten sich ZGO mit zahlreichen Mitgliedern systematisch anders als ZGO ohne Mitgliedschaft? Gestützt auf Daten von 60 transnationalen ZGO aus vier verschiedenen Politikfeldern gehen wir diesen Fragen nach. Zentrales Ergebnis ist, dass ZGO mit breiter Mitgliedschaft sich in ihren Rollenverständnis und ihren Einflussstrategien nicht grundlegend von anderen unterscheiden. Auch im Hinblick auf wichtige Aspekte ihrer Legitimität, wie etwa Transparenz oder Einbindung von Regelungsadressaten, gibt es keine auffälligen Unterschiede. Die Politikfelder, in denen ZGO aktiv sind, haben ebenfalls keinen messbaren Einfluss auf ihr Handlungsrepertoire und ihre politischen Strategien.

Sharing Global Governance: The Role of Civil Society Organizations

This report explores the multiple roles and potential of CSOs in international policymaking and examines the strengths and weaknesses of CSOs and state-based organizations in global governance. It looks particularly closely at the resources, access, skills and experience that each group of actors brings to the table. It concludes that the infrastructure used to incorporate CSOs into the United Nations and other multilaterals must be strengthened and expanded if more integrated and effective forms of collaboration are to be developed and outlines policy recommendations how this goal can be accomplished

ILR Impact Brief - Collective Bargaining Remains the Linchpin of Worker Representation

[Excerpt] The decline in union density and collective bargaining coverage has created a representation gap that civil society organizations only partially bridge. Their offer of mutual insurance and political and legal advocacy on issues of concern to workers is no substitute for collective bargaining, a function that resides entirely within the union portfolio. Growing wage inequality is the clearest indication that representation without bargaining provides workers little protection against the power of employers and “the state.” Alliances between unions and civil society organizations may help labor reach potential members and advance workers’ non-bargaining interests

Civil Society Institutional Response: Peaceful Intervention to Resolve Armed Conflicts

The civil society sector has been quite visible in the Philippine landscape since the end of the Marcos administration. Peace civil society organizations (CSOs), in particular, have multiplied in number after the Martial Law period in response to efforts to seek for a lasting solution to the armed conflicts in the Philippines. More of their objectives, programs, and expansion are detailed in this Notes.civil society, armed conflict, civil society organizations (CSOs), peace CSOs, peace zones, peace coalitions

Transformational dynamism of civil society organizations

Open innovation, F(L)OSS, sharing economy, co-creation, social entrepreneurship, solidarity economy, platform cooperativism, peer production… These innovative patterns of broadening cooperation among civil society, market and public sector players can play important role also in emergence of knowledge society. The study analyses in this broader context the communities’ transformational dynamism, which affects simultaneously the volunteers, their relationships, organization, and broader environment – provides the potential of social agency. This dynamism ensures also the capability to adapt by enabling to operate in rapidly changing environments. Multidimensional feedbacks and their aggregation into self-regulating loops create the civil society entities’ responsiveness both inwards and outwards. Outward adaptivity can seem more spectacular; however, its inward dimension is at least as important. The adaptability feeds back also with the volunteers’ self-reflection, which is of crucial importance to prevent the emergence and dominance of hierarchies. The study follows realist view of science and methodological pluralism – combines narrative description and case study driven generality focused concept creation. This constellation enables to identify components and transformational effects of the explored transformational dynamism by analysing a sample-case. In future studies the deployment of system dynamics can help to analyse also underlying processes unfolding in real domain

Europeanization of domestic civil society organizations

Europeanization has become a key concept to changes due to transfer of competences to EU level. While extensive research has been performed on institutional dynamics and also on the rise of private interest representation at EU-level, little is said about domestic civil society organizations (CSOs) and their integration in EU politics. By zooming out of Brussels we come to realize that also domestic CSOs are starting to recognize the importance of engaging in EU politics. By applying two of the few existing theoretical frameworks dealing with Europeanization of domestic organizations on two cases were domestic CSOs are engaging in EU politics, namely the debate over licensed hunt on wolfs and the question if non-profit organizations should be allowed to be exempted from paying and register VAT or not, this study aimed at contribute to theory development. From the cases studies we could see that domestic CSOs were using a multitude of strategies when engaging in EU politics taking place at both domestic and EU level. The study emphasizes that one must recognize both vertical and horizontal interactions. When doing this it becomes obvious that domestic CSOs can shape alliances with both institutional actors, other CSOs and EU based CSOs to compensate for lack of resources and EU competence. The CSOs are learning and building competences of how to engage in EU politics from a national level. By networking and using alternative strategies also domestic CSOs has proven important actors in EU politics in my two cases. Actions at both levels were intertwined and therefore when trying to predict the Europeanization of domestic CSOs one must go about such predictions carefully and with respect for the multitude of factors that come into play in such a process

Civil Society Organizations and Administrative Law

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