Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

A recurring problem within political parties is that the shrinking of democratic space goes hand in
hand with shrinking opportunities for women, youth, people with disabilities and minority groups to
access political power. This negatively impacts the otherwise positive trend for women’s
representation, as seen in Kenya and Indonesia. It also negatively affects women’s rights and policymaking
on women’s issues, as is clear in Guatemala where political parties tried to weaken the law
on femicide – an important instrument in fighting violence against women.
3.2 Citizen and civil society pushback
Civil society has been at the frontline of defending democratic space in all case studies, using a
combination of strategies such as lobbying and advocacy, building democratic alliances, petitions,
public litigation, awareness raising, mobilization of citizens, street protests and demonstrations.
Overall, civil society has been relatively successful at countering specific pieces regressive legislation
and pushing for measures to guarantee rights and open up democratic space – particularly considering
the restrictive environment in which they’re operating. Some examples highlight these successes.
In Kenya, for instance, civil society successfully shelved retrogressive amendments to the Public
Benefits Organizations Act 2013 which would have restricted CSOs’ ability to register and operate,
by organising demonstrations, lobbing members of parliament, strategically engaging government
agencies and public awareness raising campaigns. In the face of a polarised media space around
elections, Georgian civil society successfully passed a package that ensures cable TV subscribers can
watch all key television channels in the pre-election period even if those channels are not included
in the provider’s package. Honduran civil society successfully pushed for an act that secured financial
support for human rights defenders by the government. In Guatemala, massive protests in 2015
against corrupt politicians led to the resignation of the president and vice president and led to new
platforms and networks advocating for clean politics.
These examples show the ingenuity, persistence and impact of organised civil society in defending
and expanding democratic space. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind these success
cases won’t lead to sustained change without the political will to preserve or open up democratic
space at the top. The case of Honduras illustrates this well, where civil society’s initial success to
lobby for the International Mission to Support against Corruption and Impunity (MACCIH) was only
temporary, as the MACCIH was later stopped due to the lack of government support.
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