Die Arbeit stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit es externen Akteuren möglich ist, zivilgesellschaftliche Strukturen eines in der Transformation befindlichen Staates zu stärken, um damit einen Beitrag zur Konsolidierung nachkommunistischer Gesellschaften zu leisten. Resultiert die externe Förderung tatsächlich in eine „zivilere“ Gesellschaft, welche sich auf mündige und aktive Bürger stützt, oder führt sie zu einem bloßen Transfer von Strukturen in Form von Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen (NRO), welche jedoch keine gesellschaftliche Anbindung haben und bloße Zuarbeiter westlicher Geberorganisationen sind?

Um diese Frage zu beantworten, werden im theoretischen Teil der Arbeit ausgehend vom akteurszentrierten Institutionalismus zwei wesentliche Mechanismen identifiziert, durch welche die Aktivitäten der Geber Veränderungen bei den Nehmern erzielen: Ermächtigung und Lernen. Während Ersteres die Einsatzmöglichkeiten und Ressourcen einiger Akteure stärkt und damit vorhandene Akteurskonstellationen ändert, führt Letzteres dazu, dass neue Ideen Eingang in die politische Arena finden.

Die Arbeit stellt die Aktivitäten vier verschiedener Geberländer und –organisationen in Polen und der Slowakei in den 1990er Jahren vor; der Europäischen Union, Deutschlands, der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und dem privaten Netzwerk der Soros Stiftungen; und untersucht deren Beitrag zur zivilgesellschaftlichen Entwicklung beider Länder. Hierzu werden lokale NROs in den Blick genommen, welche maßgeblich von westlichen Gebern unterstützt werden und untersucht, inwieweit diese als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungieren, welche Legitimität sie bei der Bevölkerung besitzen und ob sie nach Rückzug der Geber weiter existieren.

Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Schluss, dass westliche Zivilgesellschaftsförderung in beiden untersuchten Ländern einen positiven Effekt hatte in dem Sinne, dass maßgeblich geförderte NROs tatsächlich als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungierten. Sie bemühten sich um die Unterstützung anderer NROs, erweitern gesellschaftliche Partizipationsmöglichkeiten und sind soweit in nationale Strukturen und in der Gesellschaft verankert, dass auch ein Fortbestand ohne westliche Gelder möglich ist.

With the end of the communist bloc and the transformations taking place in Central and Eastern Europe the promotion and protection of democracy from abroad became a major field of assistance. Especially civil society assistance, understood as direct support granted to non-governmental actors of the target state with the explicit aim to promote the consolidation of democracy, became a major pillar of democracy aid. The dissertation analyzes civil society assistance and aims to tackle the question whether it is feasible to promote and strengthen civil society from abroad. Does civil society assistance result in more civil society or does it result in nothing more than the establishment of donor driven NGOs which are neither voluntary nor independent but solely function as puppets of donors?

In order to answer this question and following the insights of actor-centered institutionalism, the dissertation identifies to modes of external intervention labeled „empowerment” and “learning. In the first case, donors may increase the action resources of chosen domestic actors, thus altering domestic actor constellations, by providing finances, technical equipment, information and know-how. In the latter case, external actors may impact upon the orientations, that is, the perceptions and preferences, of domestic actors.

The dissertation analyses the contribution of the activities of four different donors; the European Union, the USA, Germany and the private network of Soros Foundations; to the development of civil society in Poland and Slovakia. In order to pinpoint outcomes of civil society assistance the dissertation focuses on recipients and their activities. The dissertation thus clarifies to what extent main recipient organizations act as carriers of civil society, whether they transmit the interests of their constituency into politics, whether they fulfill a watch-dog function and democratic functions attributed to civil society. It therefore analyzes main recipients, their sustainability, legitimacy and effectiveness as carriers of civil society.

The dissertation jumps to the conclusion that externally driven civil society assistance had positive effects in both countries under investigation as supported NGOs acted as carriers of civil society.

Table of contents

• 1 Introduction

  • 1.1 The Rise of Civil Society Assistance 

  • 1.2 Key Interests and Concerns

  • 1.3 The Structure of the Dissertation

  • 1.4 Research

• 2 The Concept of Civil Society

  • 2.1 Contemporary Understandings of Civil Society

    • 2.1.1 Liberal Approaches - Civil Society as a Realm Outside the State

    • 2.1.2 The Pluralist Approach - Civil Society and the Plurality of Organized Collective Interests

    • 2.1.3 Critical Democracy Theory - Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere

    • 2.1.4 Civil Society and Social Capital 

    • 2.1.5 Communitarian Approaches - Civil Society and Small Communities

    • 2.1.6 The Third Sector Approach - Civil Society and Effectiveness 

    • 2.1.7 Summary

  • 2.2 Studying Civil Society 

    • 2.2.1 Defining Civil Society 

    • 2.2.2 A Dynamic Model of Civil Society 

    • 2.2.3 Indicators for Research 

    • 2.2.4 Summary

  • 2.3 Civil Society in Post-Communism 

  • 2.4 Conclusion and Implications for Research 

• 3 Civil Society Assistance: Actors, Objectives, Concepts and Strategies 

  • 3.1 Defining Civil Society Assistance 

  • 3.2 Objectives of Assistance: Civil Society - a Remedy to Various Illnesses 

  • 3.3 Donor Concepts of Civil Society - One Term, Various Meanings

  • 3.4 Strategies of Civil Society Assistance

    • 3.4.1 Institution-Building

    • 3.4.2 Capacity Building

    • 3.4.3 Project-specific Support

  • 3.5 Conclusion: Problems of Civil Society Assistance 

• 4 Theoretical Framework: Civil Society Assistance as Externally Driven Intentional Institutional Transfer 

  • 4.1 Two Distinct Approaches to Civil Society Assistance 

  • 4.2 A Sociological Understanding of Institutions

  • 4.3 Institutional Transfer – Doing What Cannot Be Done? 

  • 4.4 Coercive Imposition versus Slavish Imitation: Conditions of Successful Gardening 

    • 4.4.1 Actors and Interactions

    • 4.4.2 Two Modes of External Influence: Empowerment and Learning

    • 4.4.3 Conditions of ‘Successful’ Transfer

  • 4.5 Conclusion: Working Hypothesis, Key Claims and Implications for Research

• 5 Methodology 

  • 5.1 The Comparative Method and the Small N - Many Variables Problem 

  • 5.2 The Selection of Cases

  • 5.3 What to Observe

    • 5.3.1 Leading Research Questions 

    • 5.3.2 Objects of Research

  • 5.4 Measurement Technique

• 6 Donors in Focus: Major Donors and Donor - Recipient Interactions

  • 6.1 Major Donors of Civil Society Assistance in Central and Eastern Europe

    • 6.1.1 Civil Society Assistance as Part of an Integration Strategy – The European Union and its Phare Program

    • 6.1.2 Forerunners in the Promotion of Democracy: United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) 

    • 6.1.3 The Enlargement of European Networks – The German Transform-Program and the German Political Foundations

    • 6.1.4 Private Actors – Efforts “From Below”

  • 6.2 The Network of Donor-Recipient Relationships 

• 7 Analyzing Civil Society Assistance in Poland 

  • 7.1 The Domestic Context - Historical and Cultural Legacies 

    • 7.1.1 Solidarity and the Legacies of a “Successful” Opposition 

    • 7.1.2 Summary: Preconditions of Civil Society in Poland

  • 7.2 Ten Years After – The Reemerging Civil Society in Poland

    • 7.2.1 Quantity of Non-Governmental Organizations 

    • 7.2.2 Composition

    • 7.2.3 Regional Distribution

    • 7.2.4 Civic Participation and Volunteerism

    • 7.2.5 Relationship between Non-Governmental Organizations and State Authorities

    • 7.2.6 Relationships Among NGOs and Inside Civil Society

    • 7.2.7 Summary 

  • 7.3 The External Push – Forms and Types of Civil Society Assistance in Poland 

    • 7.3.1 The Quantity of Civil Society Assistance – A Minor Financial Item 

    • 7.3.2 The Marriot Brigades and Some Favored Cliques: The Years 1990-1993

    • 7.3.3 From Macro to Micro – The Donor Learning Curve: The Years 1994 - 1998 

    • 7.3.4 Withdrawal of Donors and the Europeanization of Assistance: The End of the 1990s 

  • 7.4 The Output and Outcome of Assistance – Recipients in Focus

    • 7.4.1 Types of Main Recipients

    • 7.4.2 Sustainability of Main Recipients

    • 7.4.3 Legitimacy of Main Recipients 

    • 7.4.4 Main Recipients as Carriers of Civil Society? 

    • 7.4.5 Recipient Benefits – Did Civil Society Assistance Make a Difference?

    • 7.4.6 Summary

  • 7.5 Conclusion: Civil Society Assistance in Poland – A Success Story by Accident or Skill? 

• 8 Analyzing Civil Society Assistance in Slovakia

  • 8.1 The Domestic Context - Historical and Cultural Legacies

    • 8.1.1 Pre-Communist Legacies

    • 8.1.2 Communist Legacies

    • 8.1.3 Summary: Cultural Preconditions of Civil Society in Slovakia

  • 8.2 The belated Liberalization – The Rise of Civil Society in Slovakia

    • 8.2.1 Quantity of Non-Governmental Organizations

    • 8.2.2 Composition

    • 8.2.3 Regional Distribution

    • 8.2.4 Civic Participation and Volunteerism 

    • 8.2.5 Ties Between Non-Governmental Organizations and Within Civil Society

    • 8.2.6 Relations Between Non-Governmental Organizations and State Authorities

    • 8.2.7 Summary: The Belated Rise of Civil Society in Slovakia 

  • 8.3 The External Push – Forms and Types of Civil Society Assistance in Slovakia

    • 8.3.1 Main Donors and their Interests

    • 8.3.2  The Quantity and Timing of Assistance 

    • 8.3.3 Strategy of Assistance

  • 8.4 The Output and Outcome of Civil Society Assistance in Slovakia – Recipients in Focus

    • 8.4.1 Types of Main Recipients 

    • 8.4.2 Sustainability of NGOs in Slovakia 

    • 8.4.3 Legitimacy of Main Recipients

    • 8.4.4 Main Recipients as Carriers of Civil Society?

    • 8.4.5 Recipient Benefits – Did Civil Society Assistance Make a Difference?

    • 8.4.6 Summary

  • 8.5 Conclusion: Civil Society Assistance in Slovakia: Western Political Intervention From Below?

• 9 Conclusion

  • 9.1 Core Conclusions and Results

  • 9.2 Implications for Practitioners of Civil Society Assistance

  • 9.3 Research Outlook 

• Acknowledgements

• List of Abbreviations

•  Bibliography

• Appendix to the Dissertation

• Declaration

• Table 1: Ideal Types of Civil Society Development

• Table 2: Civil Society: Indicators for Research 

• Table 3: Phare Programs in Favor of Civil Society Development 1991- 1997(MECU)

• Table 4: Donor-Recipient Relationships (by Direction of Money Flows).

• Table 5: Cvil Society Assistance in Relation to other Forms of DPP in Poland, Slovakia and CEE Average, 1990 – 2000

• Table 6: NGOs Relying Partially on Foreign Funds by Core Area of Activity in Poland 1994

• Table 7: Types of Main Recipients

• Table 8: New Registrations of NGOs per Year 

• Table 9: Topics and Participation on the Stupava Conferences