Civil Society Cooperation Research Articles

Digitalization as a guarantee of the right to environmental information

The article is devoted to the study of the legal framework for the use of information technologies as a component of the legal mechanism for realization of the right to environmental information. The author notes that in forming the legal framework for digitalization of environmental relations, the need to use digital technologies to create conditions for universal accessibility of environmental information and to raise environmental awareness is crucial. The author emphasizes that digitalization is at the same time a guarantee of the constitutional right of citizens to have access to information on the state of the environment. A systematic analysis of the legal provisions which form the basis for the digitalization of environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment and which serve as guarantors of the right to environmental information is carried out. The author emphasizes the need to improve the State system of environmental monitoring and information support of public administration. The article examines the service of recording the facts of environmental damage caused by emergencies, events, and armed aggression of the Russian Federation “EcoThreat”, which aims at recording the facts of environmental damage to the environment not only for prompt response, forecasting, management decision-making, reporting and planning regarding the recorded facts of environmental damage, as well as to ensure that citizens can exercise their rights in terms of free access to up-to-date information on recorded facts of damage to the environment as a result of emergencies, events, and armed aggression of the russian federation. It is summarized that the significant potential of digital technologies for social development is important for ensuring public access to the environmental sphere, expanding cooperation of civil society with public authorities and business, opening up new opportunities for the realization of environmental rights and meeting the environmental needs of citizens, and ensuring an improvement in the quality of the environment and the range of public services.

Unfulfilled Future Perfect? Comics as a Site of Liberty in Post-Mao China

ABSTRACT This study examines the changing ideological landscape of post-Mao China through the prism of the science fiction work, The Three Courts, published in the late 1970s. This work and its comic adaptations are not landmark works of literary history and popular culture but rather a utopian fable addressing the profound issues of the reform. We demonstrate how the comic version received a temporary ideological license to support the popular liberty movement, which reflects the cooperation of officials and civil society in the face of the socialist faith crisis and how such collaboration broke down in 1979. By analyzing the two revisions made to this work, we argue that the comic can be seen as a site of liberty that contains radical political content, but its visual output has not been censored. Thus, before the new myth of post-socialism took shape, this text reveals the unfulfilled expectations of democratized reforms by pro-democratic knowledge elites and cultural bureaucrats standing among the ruins of Mao-era China.

State and prospects of legal regulation of digitalization of public participation in environmental protection

Current issues of legal support for digitization of public participation in the process of making environmentally significant decisions in Ukraine are explored in the article. The significant potential of digital technologies to ensure environmental security and sustainable social development is emphasized. Digitization of relations in the field of ecology in Ukraine affects the determination of the main directions of the national environmental policy. Post-war recovery and development of the economy will require integration into the plans, programs and other documents of the state planning of the ecological block. This is connected with the restoration of the state. This actualizes scientific research on the legal basis of public participation in strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment procedures.
 Systematic analysis of legal norms, which are the basis of digitalization of strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment, is carried out in the article. The problems of legislative regulation of relations in the specified sphere are defined.
 The author notes the importance of broad public involvement in the process of making ecologically significant decisions, which is a guarantee of balance, and the effectiveness of decision-making and their further coordinated implementation in practice. Positive innovations are indicated. It is necessary to continue work on improving the procedure of strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment, the conclusion is drawn.
 Digitization, as one of the defining trends in the development of human civilization, forms an inclusive society and creates conditions for better management mechanisms, expands public access to the environmental sphere, increases the quality of the environment and the range of public services, expands the ways of cooperation of civil society with subjects of power and business, and also creates opportunities in the implementation of environmental rights and satisfaction of the environmental needs of citizens.

Civil society organisations transforming teacher professional development: Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning in wartime Ukraine

AbstractA unique model of government and civil society cooperation has emerged in Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and grew even more important amid the full‐scale invasion of Russia. Recent reforms and teacher professional development in Ukraine build on this model that promotes addressing national‐level challenges in equitable partnerships between government and civil society organisations (CSOs). This paper considers examples and results of their cooperation and draws on: (1) experiences in teacher education—specifically, from the EdWay national platform and the SEE Learning programme, both implemented by EdCamp Ukraine NGO (EdCamp); (2) national sociological studies—specifically, the 2018 study Teach and Learn, and the 2021 Feasibility Study on Opportunities for Social and Emotional Learning in Ukraine; (3) and data from the 2022 case study SEE Learning in Ukraine Through Teachers' Eyes: Before, During, and After the War. Experiences and study data demonstrate the need to support Ukrainian teachers in developing social and emotional skills both for self‐help and for students. These findings align with the requirements of the current New Ukrainian School reform. The authors discuss the potential education CSOs possess in addressing teacher needs for developing emotional and ethical competence and corresponding soft skills. It may be predicted that government and civil sector collaboration will continue to play an important role in the development of education in Ukraine. These expectations are supported by Ukraine's involvement in the 2023 OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills where EdCamp is the designated national research centre in Ukraine.

Broadening the concept of interregionalism: beyond state-centrism and Eurocentrism

An increasingly relevant layer of South–South cooperation (SSC) is the proliferation of interactions between regional organisations, in addition to bilateral cooperation. However, studies on interregionalism often exhibit a Eurocentric bias and a state-centric approach, as they frequently overlook non-state actors in their analyses. This article seeks to expand the conceptualisation of interregionalism into a global phenomenon that is interlinked with regionalism in a reciprocal manner, and that is driven by the mutual impact between different stratifications of interregionalism, involving state as well as non-state actors. Using empirical examples from Latin America, Africa, the Arab World and Europe, the article finds that formal cooperation between regional organisations has a more substantial impact on regionalism, particularly in asymmetric settings. Meanwhile, the emergence of interregional civil society cooperation remains closely tied to the existence of state-driven interregionalism whether as a sponsor or a common adversary.

ГРОМАДЯНСЬКЕ СУСПІЛЬСТВО І ДЕРЖАВА: НАПРЯМКИ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ

The article analyzes the political content of the ideology of civil society, which manifests itself in two main aspects: first, through the limitation of state influence on all areas of human life; secondly, through the creation and activity of public associations that help citizens solve important issues for them in the socio-political plane, protect citizens from state pressure, and consolidate society. It was found that the political nature of civil society is manifested in the presence of such institutions as political parties, socio-political organizations, independent mass media, local self-government bodies through which it interacts with the state. The tasks and methods of activity of civil society and the state differ significantly. The main task of a democratic state is to ensure national interests, while the priority of civil society is to protect private, individual, group and general interests of citizens. It has been found that differences in goals lead to certain contradictions, and therefore, with the cooperation of civil society and the state, permanent conflicts between them are as natural as a person’s choice of strategic and tactical goals, means of their achievement, finding a compromise and the optimal state of desires and opportunities. A functional manifestation of civil society should be considered the activity of its institutions, which is aimed at the affirmation and protection of its main values, the implementation and optimization of the institutional mechanisms of democracy, as well as the political and legal foundations of its reproduction and improvement.

2030 부산 세계엑스포의 성공적 유치를 위한 지역공동체의 협력 방안 – 2025 오사카-칸사이 엑스포 사례를 중심으로

This study aims to examine cooperation cases in the course of holding the Osaka-Kansai Expo in Japan in 2025 from the perspective of cooperation of the local community for the successful hosting of the 2030 Busan Expo. The system for analyzing cases of community cooperation was analyzed in three dimensions: civil society cooperation, economic community cooperation, and political community cooperation. From the point of view of civil society cooperation, the enthusiastic participation of citizens is a significant factor leading to successful attraction. In particular, the difference can be found in youth participation activities in the Osaka area. From the viewpoint of economic community cooperation, it is of great significance to citizens that various cooperative measures with local companies have emerged to achieve the goals linked to the SDGs, the basic ideology of the Expo. In terms of political community cooperation, the full support and collaboration of Osaka City officials and local councils stand out. It is likewise significant since it actively approaches local citizens and businesses, as well as councils in other regions.

Directions of harmonization of the main principles of domestic administrative and legal science with European integration requirements

It has been noted that today the process of integration of national legislation into the unified European legal system is of unprecedented importance for many spheres of Ukrainian society, and most of all for the legislative basis that regulates legal relations between the state in general and society and citizens in particular. It has been emphasized that for the above reason, the process of European integration of national legislation has the most significant impact on administrative and legal science, since this branch of law is the most important regulator of social relations in the field of public administration, specifies and regulates the rules of operation, organization of activities and legal status of public authorities, and also establishes the rights and obligations of citizens and public organizations in the specified sphere.
 It has been established that an important role in the functioning of all legal branches is played by the basic, objectively determined foundations on which the activities of public authorities are built. At the same time, their functioning should be included in the system of legal acts that determine the regulatory limits of administrative law. It has been emphasized that the basis of research in the specified field of law should be the actualization and systematization of the above-mentioned principles.
 It has been summarized that the directions of adaptation and harmonization of the main provisions of the national administrative and legal science with the European integration requirements set by the partner countries to Ukraine as a candidate for accession to the European Union should, first of all, be implemented through the prism of revision of the scientific paradigm of the basic principles of administrative law in general and public administration in particular. The above-mentioned approaches are aimed at demonstrating to the world community the steady rise of Ukraine as a legal, democratic state, ensuring effective cooperation of state institutions and civil society, guaranteeing commitment to the principles of the rule of law, as well as maintaining the proper level of functioning of the law enforcement mechanism of our country.

SOLIDARITY FOR MYANMAR: #MILKTEAALLIANCE INDONESIA’S TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM IN PRESSURING THE GOVERNMENT OF INDONESIA AND ASEAN

The military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, carried out by the Tatmadaw against top officials from the newly elected-government–in which National League for Democracy (NLD) Party made the majority–brought strong backlashes from civil society, one of which was the Milk Tea Alliance. This paper discusses the activism of Milk Tea Alliance Indonesia in pressuring the Indonesian government and ASEAN, especially during the ASEAN Special Summit. This paper is based on qualitative method using literature review on the case study of Milk Tea Alliance activism in Indonesia. By referring to the ‘Boomerang pattern’ framework on transnational advocacy network, this paper argues that the Milk Tea Alliance represents a valuable model in South-South civil society cooperation due to the multiplicity of channels, actor form, and issues. Therefore, it plays an essential role in decolonizing the unequal North-South relations in the initial concept of Keck & Sikkink. Furthermore, this article also exposes the role of regional norms in influencing the ‘boomerang pattern,’ making it difficult for the solidarity to push ASEAN & Indonesian government as the de-facto leader of ASEAN to act stricter on Tatmadaw.

When regional-based socialisation fails: Diversifying and strengthening the EU’s approach to its neighbourhood

The EU has long used socialisation, and with it, regional ties, to advance its interests in its neighbourhood and contribute to shaping the values and norms of its partner countries. Relying on the role of ‘regional champions’, however, comes with the risk of negative socialisation should EU values not be respected in the very EU member states tasked with acting as facilitators for the partner countries. Brussels can work to mitigate these risks by moving beyond the strongly regional framework, introducing clear references to the pillars of the rule of law in its agreements in the neighbourhood and by protecting civil society cooperation from government interference.

Complaints, Requests and Petitions as Instruments of Social Control for Civil Society in a Democratic State of Law

Abstract The article deals with non-procedural means of social influence, such as complaints, requests and petitions, on the performance of public tasks by public authorities. Complaints, requests and petitions belong in Polish law to extra-procedural legal means which discipline bodies and institutions of public authority to perform public tasks in the best possible way. On the other hand, these extra-procedural legal remedies are a tool for civil society capable of becoming active in the social space. In this way, complaints, requests and petitions constitute an important manifestation of social control in a democratic state of law, based on the principles of cooperation between the citizen and the agent of authority. On the one hand, they constitute a kind of cooperation of civil society with the authorities, and on the other hand, they subordinate the directions of the authorities’ actions. The performance of public tasks should, after all, coincide to the highest degree with public expectations. Complainants and petitioners can, through these means, stimulate the activities of public bodies and institutions, and thus influence the spending of public funds. By activating actions of public authorities complaints, requests and petitions become human rights related to freedom, as no one should limit the activity of civil society. On the example of Polish legislation the author explicates these extra-procedural means of supporting civil society initiatives, indicating their importance not only in Polish constitutional and administrative law, but, above all, their general social significance.

Evolution of Russian foreign policy towards the Baltic States at the present Stage

The article gives an analysis of Russia’s foreign policy in relation to the Baltic States from 1990 to 2019. The author identifies four main stages of its evolution. It is concluded that the main problems of the Russian-Baltic dialogue are discrimination of the Russian-speaking minority, issues of historical memory, a decrease of the Russian transit and security. The relations between Russia and the Baltic states has become conflict almost after dissolution of the USSR. However, in 1990-2000-ies, Russia still tried to formulate a positive agenda for the relations with the Baltics. The main motive of its strategy was to build trust and political relations on the basis of economic cooperation and civil society. Since 1990-s Russia has been developing cross-border cooperation programs. Since late 2000-s Russia has been also developing cross-border programs with the EU. However, Russia’s hopes were not justified. Its relations with Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have worsened since 2014 after the Ukrainian conflict. Prospects for their improvement are still unclear. The author comes to the conclusion that Russia is “tired” from the Baltic States. Despite the fact that Russia has been systematically transforming its foreign policy after the dissolution of the USSR, it has not fully achieved its goals. There is still discrimination of the Russian minority. Russia and the Baltics have not come to a single interpretation of the Second World War history. Political contradictions prevail over economic ties. Despite the growing estrangement between Russia and the Baltic States, Russia keeps developing them concentrating on trans-border and civil society cooperation. Such relations are non-political and they are focused on solving specific problems.

Policymaking in a low-trust state: legitimacy, state capacity, and responses to COVID-19 in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT With indiscriminate geographic and socio-economic reach, COVID-19 has visited destruction of life and livelihoods on a largely unprepared world and can arguably be declared the new millennium’s most trying test of state capacity. Governments are facing an urgent mandate to mobilize quickly and comprehensively in response, drawing not only on public resources and coordination capabilities but also on the cooperation and buy-in of civil society. Political and institutional legitimacy are crucial determinants of effective crisis management, and low-trust states lacking such legitimacy suffer a profound disadvantage. Social and economic crises attending the COVID-19 pandemic thus invite scholarly reflection about public attitudes, social leadership, and the role of social and institutional memory in the context of systemic disruption. This article examines Hong Kong as a case where failure to respond effectively could have been expected due to low levels of public trust and political legitimacy, but where, in fact, crisis response was unexpectedly successful. The case exposes underdevelopment in scholarly assumptions about the connections among political legitimacy, societal capacity, and crisis response capabilities. As such, this calls for a more nuanced understanding of how social behaviours and norms are structured and reproduced amidst existential uncertainties and policy ambiguities caused by sudden and convergent crises, and how these can themselves generate resources that bolster societal capacity in the fight against pandemics.

Характеристика принципов уголовно-исполнительного законодательства

The article analyzes the characteristics of the principles of criminal executive law. It is substantiated that the main principles of the criminal executive law are: legality, humanism, justice, the inevitability of the execution and serving of sentences and other measures of criminal law, differentiation and individualization of the execution of sentences and other measures of criminal law, the cooperation of state bodies and civil society, equality of convicts before the law, stimulation of law–abiding and active socially useful behavior of convicts, rational use of coercive means and resocialization, the combination of the execution of sentences and other measures of criminal law impact with the correctional effect on convicts and their resocialization.

Election, International Election Monitoring Groups and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

A representative democracy can be achieved through a free and fair electoral environment. It is at the instance of ensuring free and fair election that observation has emerged as a fundamental principle in restoring people’s confidence, trust and appraising electoral integrity for democratic development. The participation and involvement of international election observers in electoral matters aim to ensure that elections are conducted in accordance with conventional democratic ethical standards across the globe. Premised on this background, this paper seeks to examine the role of international election observers in major elections conducted in Nigeria’s fourth republic. Six international election observation bodies were sampled: National Democratic Institute (NDI), The Commonwealth Secretariat (CS), European Commission (EC), International Republican Institute (IRI), Human Right Watch (HRW) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The study unravels the essential roles of international election observers in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections in Nigeria. The paper therefore avers that international election observers have performed more than expectation in correcting previous electoral malfeasances through their dynamic reports and recommendations. Their monumental roles discerned the 2011 general election from the preceding 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections which were marred by miscellaneous electoral flaws in Nigeria. Thus, the paper recommends ultimate cooperation of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), civil society, security agency and electorate with International Electoral Observers for the realization of sustainable democracy in Nigeria.

Development of the impact investing ecosystem in Ukraine

The impact investing ecosystem is currently in its infancy in Ukraine. The aim of the paper is to identify the problems of impact investing development in Ukraine and to propose the ways to develop the ecosystem of social investment in the country. In the course of the research, general scientific methods of analysis were used: formal, logical, and comparative. Results of the research suggest that theory and practice of state regulation in Ukraine still lack the conceptualized mechanisms of impact investing and the corresponding institutional environment. On the other hand, there is a high level of interest and engagement in it from both the public and potential and current investors. The data obtained prove the importance of civil society cooperation in creating a favorable ecosystem of impact investing to maximize its integration into the economy. The development of impact investing ecosystem in Ukraine depends on certain socio-economic and legal barriers at an initial stage such as: low level of public understanding about the problem, absence of clear legal regulation and uncertainty of the “rules of the game” at the legislative level, openness and publicity of enterprises, which is not a characteristic feature of the economic environment in the country today. Furthermore, effective directions and mechanisms for development of the impact investing ecosystem are proposed.

Європейські моделі молодіжної політики та перспективи для України.

The article discusses the concepts of and youth analyzes the main models of youth policy produced by world practice, namely: conservative (state support is given only to those who are in the most difficult financial situation, while the state tightly controls spending of funds and defining its recipients), model of social partnership (based on the principle of recognition of the special role of the state and clear regulation by law of measures to support young people actions and youth organizations), sociostate (the state assumes most functions and covers the regulation of all young people as a whole, but almost does not take into account the interests of civil society and business in the field of youth policy), communitarian (paternalistic state youth policy, characteristic of authoritarian politics regime, the state is fully responsible for regulating youth work). In addition, European models of such policy, which are distinguished depending on the regime of youth policy implementation (universalist, protectionist, community-based model and centralized), are considered. The first is based on the principles of youth autonomy and independence, as well as the active cooperation of civil society with the state in the implementation of youth policy. The second is characterized by a strong social orientation and is aimed at helping young people. The community-based model envisages minimal government involvement and broad powers for civil society. The last one is characterized by the fact that the leading role in the realization of youth rights belongs not to the state, but to the family and the church. It is established that the social partnership or universalist model, formed by the Scandinavian countries, is optimal for construction in Ukraine. In this model, the widest possible use of youth potential for the development of society and the state is possible.

State policy in the field of civil society cooperation, executive and local government: legal and managerial aspects

The article describes the main factors of the development of civil society in Ukraine. Civil society as an independent and self-governing institution can and must play a powerful transformative and protective role in periods threatening for the state. It is thanks to civil society institutions that the state has a chance to escape from the threat of authoritarianism and disintegration through the development of volunteer, charitable and voluntary movements and the example of the Ukrainian state in recent years is another confirmation of this. Interaction of civil society and state institutions should be based on partnership, mutual interest in achieving the goals related to the process of democratization of all spheres of public administration and public life, socio-economic and spiritual progress, and comprehensive protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen. It is the state of development of relations between local executive authorities, local self-government bodies and structural entities of political parties, civil society institutions that demonstrates the democratic and publicity of processes and the realism of the steps of the formation of civil society in the regions of the country. An important part of this process is the creation of effective mechanisms for coordinating the communicative efforts of public authorities, which will enable united efforts in solving common problems, avoid duplication of functions, and simplify organizational structure. However, the article analyzes the principles of interaction of civil society organizations with state authorities and their influence on the development of the rule of law, identifies a number of problematic issues regarding cooperation between the authorities and the public, as well as suggests ways of solving problems in the interaction of civil society institutions with state authorities.

Антикорупційні ініціативи болгарського громадянського суспільства: оцінка впливу на системну корупцію.

The article studies the participation of Bulgarian civil society in corruption counteraction on the national levels. It determines the extent of the “capture” of the state by corruption and underlies the systemic character of corruption in this country despite over a decade of EU membership. It is emphasized that the modern corruption practices in Bulgaria originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s: the overthrow of the communist regime and transition to market economy caused the emergence of informal groups of the former communist nomenklatura. It is noted that these groups still control the decision-making processes in the country by their activities in the “shadow zone” of politics, economy, and justice. Corruption significantly reduces the effect of the EU financial assistance and is an obstacle to Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area. The author notes that corruption counteraction has been included in the agenda of public policy only since the formation of I. Kostov’s democratic government in 1997. The final decision concerning the European integration vector in Bulgaria’s development led to the government and civil society cooperation in defining the national anti-corruption policy. The analysis of the pace of reforms in Bulgaria made it possible to conclude that this country has fallen into a post-communist trap, being in the “grey zone” between socialism and capitalism: de facto, several families form the Bulgarian politics; the media owners usually have close ties with the political elite, leading to lack of quality investigative journalism and to pronounced self-censorship of journalists; none of the Bulgarian ex-government officials have been convicted of corruption crimes. What makes Bulgaria significantly different from the other Central and Eastern European countries (especially Romania and Slovakia) is that the protest actions are not strong enough to force the authorities to take them into account. The largest surge in anti-corruption protests (three “waves”) was noted in 2013: 1) protests of socio-economic nature, complemented by anti-corruption demands (January – February); 2) protests against corruption and oligarchic political system (June – July); 3) student anti-corruption protests (November). The author emphasizes that currently the Bulgarian civil society remains relatively weak in its anti-corruption activities. The main obstacles to the effective work of the non-governmental sector include a rather limited participation of the NGOs in the public and political life, lack of solidarity etc.

CIVIL SOCIETY IN CONFLICT REGULATION: CYPRUS CASE

As a conflict regulation method, consociationalism offers stability and peace, though short-term and negative, for deeply divided societies. However, the success of consociationalism is highly doubted due to lacking long-term peace and durability. Establishment and continuation of consociational regimes mostly depend on external pressure. When the pressure vanishes, majorities tend to shift to majoritarian system or for worse, conflict can resume. This paper argues that, being only dependent on elite cooperation and on the back-up of international actors is not adequate and creates a weakness in the approach. To overcome this, domestic actors, most importantly civil societal actors, should be empowered and incorporated in the establishment of a long-term positive peace, in order the consociational system to be sustainable. Through civil society cooperation and projects, popular adoption of the system and improvement of communal relations can be realized. This argument is tested on a protracted conflict, Cyprus which has experienced power-sharing with external pressure and is still discussing it as a future solution, through evaluating the impacts of bicommunal NGO projects and outcomes of civil society initiatives. By utilizing conclusions from the case, this paper offers contribution to both procedures of consociational theory and conflict regulation in other multiethnic states.