Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland -- eine Standortbestimmung in Zahlen

In: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen: Analysen zu Demokratie und Zivilgesellschaft, Band 24, Heft 3, S. 105-114

Abstract

Even if much is made of the concept of a strong civil society: empirical data on the social and economic significance on the third sector structured in terms of civil society is severely lacking. The authors present initial findings of the project "civil society in numbers" which aims at closing a gap in the data-based measuring and description of the sector. As a first step, data from the company register managed by the federal office for statistics is evaluated. This allows for interesting observations on the relation between organisation size, employee numbers and activities and about the economic performance of the sector. But the authors also make clear that the basic classification data of companies only shed a limited light on civil society. Future projections need to provide information on the importance of civil society for social integration and democracy policy. Adapted from the source document