Suchergebnisse

Transitions, democratization and recent democratic backsliding in CEE provide
a rich context for examining the meaning and shifting of civic activism and how people
participate and organize in civil society today. This article offers a fresh and comparative
analysis based on empirical data on the question of what motivates formal and informal
activism, and the potentially transformative role of civil society that has recently faced
such challenges as democratic backsliding, shrinking public space and polarization. It
looks specifically at the responses of Polish and Hungarian activists and advocacy CSOs
to these new challenges. Their strategies bring an important lesson on how civil society
actors can adapt, continue their mission, or even turn challenges into opportunities.
These new trends indicate that civic space in CEE is shifting which is further influenced
by the reactions to new forms of social, economic and political crises. It is argued that
this shift and the new trends in civic activism require not only fresh empirical data, but
also a revision of normative and methodological approaches that have so far been used
in civil society and social movement research.

Young Citizen – Nonvoter? Students of Institute of Political Science (Pedagogical University in Cracow) as Participations of Electoral ProcessesTh e author concentrates on the problem of a role of young citizens in a contemporarystate and society. For this reason he assumes that their social and political attitudes,which are shaped today, will determine the quality of democracy in the future. In descriptionof motivation for voting we should notice not only the problem of internalapathy but also external alienation. Th e author, relating to empirical data from hisown research among students of Pedagogical University in Cracow, attempts to showreasons of their political passivity. Nonvoter in this study is understood as a personwho declares an absence in all kinds of election (local, parliamentary, presidential,European). Th e analysis of group of students who are potentially nonvoters leads tothe conclusion that young citizens are unplugged. Th ey are disappointed with contemporarypolitics and generally not connected with any political, social and localorganizations.