The civil society in Hungary has already been integrated into the political system. Organisations, which were set up as left-wing movements have faded away and right-wing bodies show features of a political movement. System-critical forces of the civil society, which – in theory – maintain far reaching goals of social counter-power, cannot avoid uniting their forces.
Category Archives: Former issues
Bad government, good governance – civil society versus social movements
The chapter values the work of non governmental organisations (NGO) in Latin America mostly from a political angle, presenting the tendency that community-based and grass-root organisations are gradually replaced by operational and professional ‘development agencies', which in fact promote the agenda of globalisation and neoliberalism. While left-wing movements aim to change the structure of social injustice, NGOs prefer keeping the poor away from politics and see the solution in investing in personal human capital.
Supranational movements and the question of democracy
The practice of recently proliferating civil society organisations raises several questions, including the ‘democracy paradox', that is the substantial contradiction between the final aim of these organisations at developing democratic structures of the country in which they operate and the internal structure of these organisations, which are in practice non-transparent and can hardly be called democratic. A further problem is harmonising the operation of civil organisations and democratically elected bodies. The study attempts to find a solution for this legitimacy crisis.