The Diversity of Forms: Social Movements and Political Mobilization in the Czech Republic after 1989
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Transition |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.ulb.ac.be/is/revtrans.html |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | social movement organizations; Czech Republic; mobilization; activism; democracy |
| Description | The goal of the article is to give a basic overview of the development of political mobilization in the Czech Republic after the fall of communism. The article first outlines positions in the debate on civil society, which dominated public discourse in the 1990s. Two main positions crystallized in the debate. According to the first one, civil society organizations, i.e. social movement organizations and their networks, were not supposed to play any role in post-Communist politics; according to the second one, they were, on the contrary, expected to become main institutions of democracy. Next, the text provides empirical data on political mobilization in the Czech Republic and offers an outline of various types of social movement organizations that have emerged since the beginning of the 1990s. The article diagnoses the pattern of political mobilization and concludes by assessing the contribution of these actors to the consolidation of the democratic process in the country. |
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