Project description
A closer look at civil society clampdowns
Democratic societies have been built on the freedoms of assembly and association, but clampdown has deepened and accelerated in recent years and a growing number of EU Member States has introduced legislation that intentionally or unintentionally weakens civil society organisations (CSOs). The EU-funded CIVILSPACE project will investigate the drivers and repercussions of the ‘shrinking of legal space’ for CSOs in the EU. It will study the impact on CSO law of major challenges (domestic terrorism, financial crises, populist governments) as mediated by Member States’ historically grown dispositions towards or against restricting civil society. The project will also assess how public authorities implement CSO legislation and how CSOs operate in different legal environments.
Objective
Long considered a problem of ‘third countries’, concerns about ‘shrinking civil society space’ have moved to the heart of the European Union: confronted with the challenges of domestic terrorism, financial crisis and populist government numerous member states have passed legislation constraining civil society organizations (CSOs) (e.g. EC 2018; CoE 2018; FRA 2018). Indeed, since the early 2000s, government control over and repression of civil society increased in 2/3rds of member states. This project proposes the first theoretization and comprehensive assessment of the drivers and repercussions of the ‘shrinking of legal space’ for CSOs in the EU. It asks:
How and why have EU member states altered the legal environments of CSOs over the last two decades? How do legal differences shape CSO activities central to assuring legal and political equality within organized civil society?
The theoretical framework on the drivers and organizational repercussions of ‘legally defined’ civil society space will be examined through a sophisticated, interdisciplinary, mixed-methods design. Work package 1 examines the impact on CSO law of major challenges (domestic terrorism, financial crises, populist governments) as mediated by member states’ historically grown dispositions towards or against restricting civil society. This is done through the first comprehensive statistical assessment of the changing legal restrictiveness in both framework legislation and ‘organization-specific legal regimes’ tailored to six CSO types (e.g. unions, religious, pro-immigrant CSOs) in 12 EU member states (2000-22). On that basis, Work package 2 examines in a subset of six countries through qualitative case studies how public authorities implement CSO legislation and through large-scale CSO surveys with an in-built experiment CSOs’ political engagement and their resistance against government through public contestation and legal action considering law-conforming and chilling effects of regulation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.