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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Civil Society seems to be at the center of attention in this Knowledge Programme: what is understood by it? Despite its presumed origin within Western political thinking, a clear and consensual definition of what civil society is does not exist. Following Biekart, ‘civil society in its modern conception primarily refers to citizenship and to a distinct ‘societal public sphere’ of social relations between the family and the state. Civil society can be defined as ‘the zone of voluntary as...

About the Knowledge Programme West Asia

The Knowledge Programme on Civil Society in West Asia is a joint initiative by Hivos and the University of Amsterdam/AISSR with the purpose of generating and integrating knowledge on the roles and opportunities for civil society actors in democratization processes in politically challenging environments. This programme integrates academic knowledge and practitioner’s knowledge from around the world to develop new insights and strategies on how civil society actors in Syria and Iran can cont...

About AISSR

AISSR merges three research institutes active in social science research at the UvA: ASSR, AMIDSt, and IMES. The mission of the AISSR is to stimulate the achievement of excellence in scholarly research in the social sciences, build interdisciplinary and international research collaboration, and promote academic freedom. The AISSR consists of thematically focused research programmes anchored in one or more of the disciplines represented in the new institute (Sociology, Geography and Planni...

The Uncertain Future of Democracy Promotion

30/08/2010 Democracy promotion has had a tough decade, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. Ten years ago, the democratic optimism that followed the end of the Cold War was in relatively good health. Today, after a decade of authoritarian reversals, a sustained “backlash against democracy promotion,” and authoritarian resurgence from Russia to Africa to Latin America, post-Cold War optimism has given way to a darker, more sober assessment of democratization’s limits. The Middle East in particular,...

The Uncertain Future of Democracy Promotion, by Steven Heydemann

30/08/2010 Democracy promotion has had a tough decade, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. Ten years ago, the democratic optimism that followed the end of the Cold War was in relatively good health. Today, after a decade of authoritarian reversals, a sustained “backlash against democracy promotion,” and authoritarian resurgence from Russia to Africa to Latin America, post-Cold War optimism has given way to a darker, more sober assessment of democratization’s limits. The Middle East in particular,...

Qantara: Democracy and Civil Society

Qantara.de represents the concerted effort of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Center for Political Education), Deutsche Welle, the Goethe Institut and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) to promote dialogue with the Islamic world. Especially, the dossier on Democracy and Civil Society is of interest for the Knowledge Programme. The question of Islam's compatibility with democracy is often posed in the West. For many intellectu...