Still a trustworthy ally? Civil society and the transformation of Scandinavian democracy
Still a trustworthy ally? Civil society and the transformation of Scandinavian democracy
复制标题
仍然是值得信赖的盟友吗?
DOI:
10.1080/17448680600730884
复制
发表时间:
2006
影响因子:
1.6
通讯作者:
Erik Amnå
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Erik Amnå
Abstract The comparative strength of Scandinavian democracy is perceived to depend on its close connection with a widespread and membership-based associational life that cultivates orientations and behaviour in harmony with an active, egalitarian citizenship. However, at the end of the twentieth century, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish governmental audits simultaneously revealed that the integrated Scandinavian model of democracy appeared not only to be diverging but threatened by individualization, segregation, and globalization. By a critical examination of various research findings, this article argues that Scandinavian civil society in certain respects is undergoing severe transformations that may explain more general tendencies of Scandinavian democracy. The changes of the civil society are not only internal, such as a shift from members to volunteers. Also externally, substantial changes are taking place, these partly due to governance structures and runaway parties, and causing some civic actors to move from the input side to the output side of the political system; others are shaping their critical role by speaking a global human rights language. Even though Scandinavian civil society has become more diverse, it is still undoubtedly embedded in Scandinavian democracy. However, its role as a trustworthy ally of an integrated democracy should no longer be taken for granted.