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Civil Society and Democracy: Country Level Interactions and Individual Civil Society and Democracy: The Country Level Interrelations and the Individual Level Impact By Yevgenya Paturyan A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Approved, Thesis Committee: ----------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel (Chair) (Jacobs University Bremen) ----------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Klaus Boehnke (Jacobs University Bremen) ---------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey (Jacobs University Bremen) ---------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Gert Pickel (University of Leipzig) Date of Defense: January 29, 2009 School of Humanities and Social Sciences Statement of Own Work: I hereby declare that I have written this PhD thesis independently. I have used only the sources, the data and the support that I have explicitly mentioned. I have not submitted this work at any other university for the conferral of a Degree. Data, Place Name, Signature 2 Acknowledgement It is my pleasure to use this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to the people whose support, advice and encouragement made this PhD Thesis a reality. First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel. The three years of work on this project under his supervision have been among the most intense learning periods in my life. This Thesis would not have been possible without his input and guidance. Some of the work reported here has been a journey I never thought I would embark on, left alone finish within the given timeframe. I am very grateful I was offered to make that journey and was provided with help and encouragement all the way through. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Klaus Boehnke who has been an invaluable member of my Dissertation Committee for three years, providing much needed advice and feedback in the process of research. My deepest gratitude goes to Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey and ??? who have kindly lent their assistance in the latter stages of the project, making the completion of it possible and ensuring the quality of the outcome. I am thankful to Prof. Dr. Lucig Danielian whose role in my academic life has been one of a teacher, a mentor and an inspirer. She has always been full of encouragement. I hope that with this work I am able to live up to her expectations. I would like to thank Jacobs University Bremen, formerly known as International University Bremen for providing me with financial assistance, an excellent opportunity and a most conducive environment to work in, both in terms of academia and in terms of social atmosphere. Many members of the faculty of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as my fellow students have contributed to this work in the form of stimulating discussions, comments, suggestions, criticism, etc. I would particularly like to acknowledge the input I received from Prof. Dr. Margrit Schreier, Franziska Deutsch, Martha Djourdjin, Bairavee Balasubramaniam, Daniel Pustelnik and Falina Eldredge. My academic success would not be possible if not for the social support that I have received from the vibrant Jacobs community, in particular from Mercator College with its dedicated college team and its engaging residents. Thank you for being my home away from home. Last but not least, a big “thank you” to my family and friends who encouraged me on every step I made. I appreciate all the support I have been receiving from you. 3 Summary of the Thesis Civil society is currently one of the most actively discussed concepts in political science. Many authors stress the importance of civil society for consolidating and strengthening democracy (Bernhard 1993; Diamond 1999; Putnam, Leonardi and Nanetti 1994; Karatnycky and Ackerman 2005, Shin 2006). Others contest the notion of importance of civil society, considering it either an irrelevant factor in the process of democratization, or an outcome of democracy rather than its cause (Berman 1997; Dowley and Silver 2002; Kumar 1993; Skocpol 1999). This PhD thesis examines the relationship between civil society and democracy. In doing so, it utilizes a number of new measurements of civil society. It combines the study of the impact civil society has on the polity it operates in, with an examination of the influence civil society has on individual members of the respective society. Thus the research presented in this thesis includes two important levels of interaction between civil society and democracy: the societal level and the individual level. The first part of the analysis establishes the connection between civil society and democracy and addresses the question of a more likely direction of impact between the two variables on the country level. Although no final conclusions can be made due to certain data limitations, the results point towards democracy as having more influence on civil society rather than vice versa. The second part of the analysis adds the individual level to the study of conduciveness of civil society for democracy, by exploring how civil society influences elements of individual democratic political culture. It demonstrates that civil society is an important predictor of support for democracy and political activism. The general conclusion of the work is that on the country level there is no clear evidence of civil society’s impact on democracy; civil society however has a positive influence on individual elements of democratic political culture. 4 Table of Contents Introduction: The Concept of Civil Society.............................................................................11 1. The Concept of Civil Society...........................................................................................14 1.1. Conceptual Debate and Current Definitions of Civil Society...................................16 1.1.1. Idealistic vs. Critical Approaches to Civil Society ............................................17 1.1.2. Civil Society as an Attribute vs. Civil Society as a Sector ................................20 1.1.3. Contested Issues in Defining Civil Society .......................................................21 1.1.4. Defining Civil Society .......................................................................................23 1.2. Ways of Measuring Civil Society.............................................................................25 Chapter I...................................................................................................................................30 Civil Society and Democracy: Literature Review ...................................................................30 1. Introducing Democracy ...................................................................................................31 1.1. The Concept of Democracy ......................................................................................31 2.2. The Link between Democracy and Civil Society .....................................................32 2. Civil Society and Democracy ..........................................................................................34 2.1. External Effects: Civil Society and the Polity ..........................................................35 3.1.1. Theoretical Summary of Pro-democratic External Effects................................36 2.1.2. Empirical Evidence of Pro-Democratic External Effects ..................................37 2.1.3. The Institutional Critique of the Pro-Democratic External Effects ...................40 2.2. Internal Effects: Civil Society and the Individual.....................................................43 2.2.1. The Internal Impact of Civil Society on Its Members: Theoretical Discussion 43 2.2.2 Empirical Evidence of the Internal Effects of Civil Society...............................45 2.2.3. The Critical Perspective on the Internal Effects of Civil Society......................48 Chapter II .................................................................................................................................55 Data Sources and Methodology...............................................................................................55 1. Measurements of Democracy ..........................................................................................55 2. Measurements of Civil Society........................................................................................59 3. The Choice of the Years based on the Availability of the Data.......................................63 4. Creating Combined Indicators of Democracy and Civil Society.....................................64 4.1. Combined Indicators of Democracy .........................................................................65 4.2 The Analysis of the Civil Society Data......................................................................66 4.3. Indicators of Civil Society for Years 2000 and 2004 ...............................................69 5. Measurements of the Individual Level Data....................................................................69 5 Chapter III................................................................................................................................72 Civil Society and Democracy: Country Level Analysis..........................................................72 1. Mapping the Main Variables: Descriptive Information on Democracy and Civil Society ..............................................................................................................................................73
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