Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Europeanisation in the EU New Member States. Aspects and Research Agendas
- Part one Democracy after Enlargement
- Part two Identity Transformations
- Part three Civil Society Organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
- Bottom-up Europeanisation: Civil Society Involvement and EU Governance in the New Member States
- The Europeanisation of Social Movements in the Czech Republic: the EU and Local Women's Groups
- The European Union as Political Resource: NGOs as Change Agents?
- Undiscovered Avenues? Estonian Civil Society Organisations as Agents of Europeanisation
- Part four Europeanisation of International Relations
- Index
Bottom-up Europeanisation: Civil Society Involvement and EU Governance in the New Member States
from Part three - Civil Society Organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Europeanisation in the EU New Member States. Aspects and Research Agendas
- Part one Democracy after Enlargement
- Part two Identity Transformations
- Part three Civil Society Organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
- Bottom-up Europeanisation: Civil Society Involvement and EU Governance in the New Member States
- The Europeanisation of Social Movements in the Czech Republic: the EU and Local Women's Groups
- The European Union as Political Resource: NGOs as Change Agents?
- Undiscovered Avenues? Estonian Civil Society Organisations as Agents of Europeanisation
- Part four Europeanisation of International Relations
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Civil society has become of prime interest for students and scholars of international politics and governance. The prominence of civil society is related to the constructivist and normative turn in the study of International Relations (IR). A new generation of IR scholars has recognised that state actors are no longer the sole players in international politics. Power is increasingly embedded in international regimes, in which state and non-state actors cooperate under the umbrella of international organisations and law. The new emphasis is on the role of norms and global discourses (like justice, peace or economic sustainability) in shaping state actors' preferences and behaviour. Especially civil society organisations have stepped forward as the normative backbone of the emerging global order. There are numerous examples of how the entry of non-state actors as participants in the international political arena has changed the agenda of international politics addressing social concerns, mediating conflicts and promoting development and democracy (Castells 2008; Glasius et al. 2003; Keane 2003).
In Europe, this research agenda of civil society as the stabiliser of the international order can be narrowed down by reference to the unique setting of political authority that is constituted by the European Union (EU). A new politics of civil society has come to the fore in the wake of the spectacular changes that the European Union has experienced over the past decade (Liebert and Trenz 2010).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Democracy, State and SocietyEuropean Integration in Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 171 - 178Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2011