Civil Society Organizations in the Hybrid Regime of Nicaragua: Challenging or Maintaining the Status Quo?

Cover -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Motivation -- 1.2 Research questions and objectives -- 1.3 Methods and case selection -- 1.4 Roadmap -- 2. Theoretical considerations -- 2.1 Hybrid regimes (democratization studies) -- 2.1.1 The debate -- 2.1.1.1 From a bipolar world order … -- 2.1.1.2 … to democracy with adjectives … -- 2.1.1.3 … towards hybrid regimes -- 2.1.2 Defining hybrid regimes -- 2.1.2.1 Their context of origin: The third wave -- 2.1.2.2 Their features: An ambiguous political nature -- 2.1.2.3 Their prospects: Persistence -- 2.1.3 Empirical evidence and proliferation -- 2.1.4 Current questions and research gaps (bringing in civil society) -- 2.2 Civil society organizations (CSOs) -- 2.2.1 Fundamentals -- 2.2.2 An inextricable link? CSOs and democracy -- 2.2.3 A paradox? CSOs in nondemocratic settings -- 2.2.3.1 The civil society approach: CSOs as agents of democratization -- 2.2.3.2 Global third sector research: The heterogeneity of civic organization -- 2.2.3.3 The regime approach: Civic organization in authoritarian regimes -- 2.2.4 Conclusion: Context matters! -- 2.3 Synthesis -- 2.3.1 Research gaps -- 2.3.2 Definitions -- 2.3.3 Further procedure -- 3. Research design -- 3.1 A qualitative approach -- 3.1.1 Qualitative case studies -- 3.1.2 Selecting a case: Nicaragua -- 3.1.3 Procedure: A field study split in two phases -- 3.2 Data collection -- 3.2.1 Methods used -- 3.2.2 Selection of interview partners -- 3.2.2.1 Part I: Background study (expert interviews) -- 3.2.2.2 Part II: Interviews with CSO leaders -- 3.2.3 Problems and pitfalls encountered during data collection -- 3.3 Data evaluation -- 3.3.1 Qualitative content analysis -- 3.3.2 CAQDAS / MAXQDA -- 3.3.3 The coding process -- 4. Introduction to the case -- 4.1 Historical background: From independence to the Sandinista Revolution