Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 31st NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG8: Non-Governmental Organisations in CEE Author(s) Frank Elbers University of Bucharest Bucharest Romania Ana-Maria Grigore Title Shrinking civic space in Moldova and Romania? The role of new technologies. File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Frank Elbers Abstract The "global associational revolution" (Salamon et al., 1999) of the late twentieth century has resulted in an expansion and change of the roles of non-profits in the landscape of global politics and governance. However, after decades of cooperation and collaboration it has been argued that the space for civil society organisations has recently actually been shrinking despite advances in the application of new technologies. Is the phenomenon of shrinking space of civil society observable in Moldova and Romania? How does it manifest itself? Specifically, what are the features of government-civil society relations in Moldova and Romania since the corona pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Our mixed method empirical and analytical research will explore how this “double crisis” has affected the civil society sector in both Moldova and Romania, based on an analysis of approximately 150 national and international NGOs operating in the Republic of Moldova and Romania. During the period December 2022-January 2023, we will administer a national survey of NGOs in both countries. We will also conduct (structured) interviews with a select number of (international) donors, journalists, policy makers and other area specialists about the perceived shrinking civic space and changed relations between public administration and CSOs. Areas of focus will be: public consultations on legislation; freedom of assembly; access to public information; legal changes affecting access to funding; policy changes related to CSO funding; attacks on civil society organisations; and the role of new technologies in shrinking or widening civic space. While we expect that the “shrinking civic space” hypothesis will be confirmed, the nature of public administration and NGOs in both countries will determine how much and how civic space been restricted or — refuting our hypothesis — opened space for civil society and changed relations between NGOs and public administration, governance and what role new emerging technologies play. Being a mixed academic-NGO practitioner team we expect to add new insights to both the academic and public debate about government-civil society relations in Romania and the phenomenon of shrinking space of civil society.
