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

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1. Introduction For nearly a decade now, a phenomenon termed ‘shrinking civic space’ has been at the forefront of international discussions about civil society. Following the example of the Russian ‘foreign agents’ law in 2012, a global and systematic trend of restrictions on civil society has been identified and labelled as ‘shrinking space’ by many actors in the field. Numerous research projects and monitoring projects have been undertaken in order to understand the phenomenon, and over time, these have been able to demonstrate a global and growing trend of threats to and restrictions on civil society, media, activists and active citizens in an increasing number of countries. 2 In roughly the same period, a growing trend of challenges and threats to democracy has been identified by a number of prominent scholars and research institutions under various terms, ranging from ‘democratic backsliding’ 3 , ‘democratic rollback’ 4 and ‘authoritarian resurgence’. 5 A comprehensive empirical overview of all autocratisation episodes from the last century based on data from the Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem) showed that autocratisation is now characterised by gradual regressions in both autocratic and democratic states, but mainly affects democracies – including long-established wealthy democracies. 6 2 See for a chronological overview, see European Parliament (2017): Shrinking space for civil society: the EU response. Available here. 3 See: Bermeo, Nancy (2016): On Democratic Backsliding. Journal of Democracy, 27 (1), 5-19; and Levitsky, Steven & Ziblatt, Daniel (2018): How Democracies Die. Crown Publishing, New York. 4 Diamond, Larry (2008): The Democratic Rollback. The Resurgence of the Predatory State. Foreign Affairs, 87 (2), 36–48. 5 Gat, Azar (2007): The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers. Foreign Affairs, 86 (4), 59-69 6 Lührmann, A. & Lindberg, S. (2019): a third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it? Democratization 26:7. Available here. 8
This trend has been heightened by the global COVID-19 crisis, with governments – democracies and autocracies alike – putting in place measures that limit checks and balances on government, and restrict the exercise of fundamental freedoms. 7 Numerous governments have put in place emergency procedures without sunset clauses, thereby ridding the legislative of its oversight function. 8 Over 50 countries have postponed national and subnational elections, while others plan to go ahead anyway despite the risks posed to health, the likelihood of low turnouts and the distorted campaigning environments. 9 10 Nearly all governments have significantly limited freedom of association and assembly, and many have limited freedom of expression in view of the infodemic on the virus. Many have also pointed at the gender-differentiated impact of the crisis and measures to contain the pandemic, as well as the disproprotionate impact on minority groups. 11 12 The limitations of fundamental freedoms and the breakdown of checks and balances have been widespread across all regime types, but they have been particularly worrisome in countries with autocratising regimes, which are unlikely to remove such measures. 13 The COVID-19 crisis thus clearly illustrates the intricate interplay between closing civic space and autocratisation. Yet, the phenomenon of ‘shrinking space’ has long been considered to be separate from the global trend of increasing challenges to democracies around the world. The 2017 CIVICUS state of civil society report considered the crisis of democracy as an additional layer of challenges on top of restrictions on civic space. 14 However, more recently an increasing number of policy-makers and practitioners have called on the international community to broaden the narrative of “shrinking civic space” to a closing of democratic space more widely. 15 They argue that the current narrative of civic space has led to a narrow interpretation of the issue as a civil society problem, leading to a reactive and legalistic response. Others have, however, countered this, stressing donors’ fear of political risks and the dangers of diffusing and paralysing the response to closing civic space. 7 Braun, F., Brechenmacher, S., Carothers, T. (2020): How will the Coronavirus Reshape Democracy and Governance Globally. Available here. 8 Applebaum, A. (2020): The People in Charge See an Opportunity. The Atlantic. Available here. 9 James, T. (2020): Should electios be postponed because of coronavirus? The Conversation. Available here. 10 International IDEA (2020): Global overview of COVID-19: impact on elections. Available here. 11 Alon, T., Doepke, M., Olmstead-Rumsey, .J. Tertilt, M. (2020): The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on gender equality. Vox EU. Available here. 12 Zala, E. (2020): Women hit hardest by corona economic crisis. EU Observer. Available here. 13 Braun, F., Brechenmacher, S., Carothers, T. (2020): How will the Coronavirus Reshape Democracy and Governance Globally. Available here. 14 Civicus (2017): State of civil society report. Available here. 15 Brechenmacher, S. & Carothers, T. (2019): Defending Civic Space: Is the International Community Stuck? Available here. See also: European Parliament (2017): “Shrinking space for civil society: the EU response.” Available here. 9
Page 1 and 2: Agence Française de Coopération M
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables an
Page 5 and 6: Executive Summary ‘Shrinking civi
Page 7: A third finding is that space is be
Page 11 and 12: 2. Strategies for closing democrati
Page 13 and 14: 2.1 Closing civic space There is an
Page 15 and 16: or specific voices that are deemed
Page 17 and 18: laundering has been translated into
Page 19 and 20: Smear-campaigns and the strategic u
Page 21 and 22: All scoring runs from 0 to 1, with
Page 23 and 24: to enforce political party complian
Page 25 and 26: Campaign finance and money in polit
Page 27 and 28: While most countries’ constitutio
Page 29 and 30: unpunished. These included people l
Page 31 and 32: 3. Main Actors The picture that eme
Page 33 and 34: an evolving trend in Indonesia and
Page 35 and 36: Emblematic civil society successes
Page 37 and 38: 3.3 Other non-state actors: busines
Page 39 and 40: 3.5 International donors Internatio
Page 41 and 42: 4. Conclusion While the 7 case stud
Page 43 and 44: The case studies show that the atta
Page 45 and 46: Instead, people resort to less conv
Page 47 and 48: Civil society was much stronger in
Page 49 and 50: 2. Respond with a multi-level whole
Page 51 and 52: 4. Global coordination and politica
Page 53 and 54: petitions; awareness creation; stre
Page 55 and 56: 6.4 Georgia In Georgia, civic space
Page 57 and 58: This leads to a complete lack of re
Page 59 and 60:
Poland LGBTQI people have suffered
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Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

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