18 April 2022

BOOK: Chrystie FLOUNOY SWINEY, The Associational Counter-Revolution: The Spread of Restrictive Civil Society Laws in the World’s Strongest Democratic States (Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2022) ISBN 978-1-64889-182-3, pp. 200, € 38

 
(Source: Vernon Press)

ABOUT THE BOOK

In an increasing number of countries around the globe, representing all regime types, in all regions, with all levels of economic and military strength, civil society’s autonomy from the state, its defining feature, is diminishing. While a variety of tools are used to restrict civil society organizations’ (CSOs) independence from the state, an increasingly popular and dangerously effective vehicle for accomplishing this goal is the law. Through the passage of legislation that imposes new restrictions on the ability of CSOs to operate free from excessive government scrutiny and control, governmental actors are gaining greater control over the non-governmental sector and in ways that benefit from the veneer of legality. Perplexingly, such laws are not only appearing in countries where they might be expected – Azerbaijan, Burundi, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, Zimbabwe, and countries throughout the Middle East. Indeed, they are increasingly appearing in democratic states too, including strong, fully consolidated democratic states with historically strong and independent civil society sectors: Canada, India, New Zealand, Spain, Israel, Hungary, Poland, and the US, to name just a few.

Restrictive CSO laws, which are unsurprising in authoritarian-leaning states, are uniquely puzzling in the context of democratic ones, which have been the primary defenders, funders, and champions of a robust and independent civil society. This book explores this concerning and intriguing phenomenon by documenting its full scope and spread within the world’s strongest democratic states and attempting to explain its occurrence. Using a combination of mixed methods – theory, process tracing, interviews, and statistical analysis – this timely analysis helps to shed light on a global phenomenon that seems to be fueling the democratic backsliding visible in an increasing number of democracies throughout the world. This exploration, which bridges comparative and international law, international relations, democratic theory, and state-civil society relations, attempts to make sense of this global contagion, the closing space phenomenon, which threatens to undermine one of cornerstones of any democracy – a free and independent civil society – in the years and decades ahead.   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chrystie F. Swiney, JD, MPhil, MA, is an international lawyer, political scientist, and scholar of international law, human rights, and comparative law. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School (JD), Georgetown (MA), Oxford University (MPhil), and the College of William and Mary (BA). She currently serves as a legal adviser and Associate Director for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health program at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator. Swiney has held legal positions at the International Center for Not- for-Profit Law (ICNL), the US State Department, and the Constitution Project. She has also served as a Legal Fellow at Georgetown Law Center, Editor-in-Chief of 'Global Trends in NGO Law' (published by ICNL), a Visiting Scholar at the College of William and Mary, and a consulting editor for Oxford University Press. Swiney has published numerous law review articles and co-edited 'The Cambridge Handbook of Commons Research Innovations', which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. Swiney also frequently publishes in the popular press, and recently authored pieces in the Lancet, ‘Washington Post’s Monkey Cage’, ‘The Conversation’, the ‘Atlantic’s CityLab’, and ‘OpenGlobalRights’, among others.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

KEY ARGUMENT & METHODOLOGY

OUTLINE

CHAPTER 2: THE ASSOCIATIONAL REVOLUTION

THE CENTRALIZATION OF GLOBAL POWER

THE DIFFUSION OF GLOBAL POWER

THE END OF COLONIALISM, THE EXPLOSION OF NEW STATES, AND THE RISE OF CSOS

THE RISE & SPREAD OF GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY

THE ASSOCIATIONAL REVOLUTION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 3: THE ASSOCIATIONAL COUNTER-REVOLUTION

RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS IN DEMOCRATIC STATES

THE NEGLECT OF DEMOCRACIES IN THE EXISTING LITERATURE

EXISTING EXPLANATIONS

THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION OF THE EXECUTIVE

DOES THE EXECUTIVE’S IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION MATTER?

PARTISAN AFFILIATION OF THE DOMINANT PARTY IN POWER

FEAR OF DOMESTIC UPRISINGS / PROTEST

IS PROTEST ACTIVITY LINKED TO PASSAGE OF RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS?

FEAR OF TERRORISM

DOES FEAR OF TERRORISM SPUR PASSAGE OF RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS?

NEIGHBORHOOD EFFECTS

ARE DEMOCRATIC STATES ADOPTING RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS BECAUSE OF THEIR NEIGHBORS?

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 4: EXPLAINING THE ASSOCIATIONAL COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES

BALANCE OF POWER THEORY

BALANCE OF POWER THEORY AND CSOS

TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS

THE BOOMERANG EFFECT

LEAP-FROGGING

THE POWER OF FRAMING

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY #1: BOLIVIA

CASE STUDY #2: INDIA

CASE STUDY #3: POLAND

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 5: MAPPING THE SPREAD OF RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS IN THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES

KEY DEFINITIONS

FINDINGS: THE SPREAD OF RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS IN STRONG DEMOCRATIC STATES

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6: IMPLICATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATIONAL COUNTER-REVOLUTION

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CSOS’ AUTONOMY AND DEMOCRACY

THE STATE OF GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

THE ASSOCIATIONAL COUNTER-REVOLUTION & GLOBAL DEMOCRATIC DECAY

SHRINKING SPACES FOR CSOS IN STRONG DEMOCRATIC STATES

CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS ON CSOS

A BELLWETHER FOR DEMOCRATIC DECAY?

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION

THE SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATIONS

THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF POWER

TOWARDS A NEW THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

CSOS & SOFT POWER

CSOS & SOFT LAW

UPDATING THE LEXICON OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & INTERNATIONAL LAW

FUTURE RESEARCH

CONCLUSION

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: ORIENTATION OF EXECUTIVE AT TIME OF RESTRICTIVE CSO ADOPTION

APPENDIX 2: POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF THE DOMINANT PARTY IN THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH AT THE TIME OF RESTRICTIVE CSO ADOPTION

APPENDIX 3: NUMBER OF PROTESTS IN THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES FROM 1990–2018

APPENDIX 4: NUMBER OF TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES IN THE TWO YEARS PRECEDING PASSAGE OF A RESTRICTIVE CSO LAW

APPENDIX 5: NUMBER OF NEIGHBORS (TO THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES) TO ADOPT A RESTRICTIVE CSO LAW IN THE TWO YEARS PRIOR TO A RESTRICTIVE CSO LAW’S PASSAGE

APPENDIX 6: SOURCES FOR LOCATING RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS

APPENDIX 7: ADOPTED, PROPOSED & REJECTED RESTRICTIVE CSO LAWS IN THE WORLD’S STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC STATES

APPENDIX 8: CIVICUS RATINGS FOR ENVIRONMENT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY FOR EACH OF THE 59 STRONG DEMOCRACIES

INDEX 


More information with the publisher.


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