scholarly journals The Emerging of New Democratic Space: CSOs and Parliament in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelis Lay

This article deals with the inclusion of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the decision-making processes in Post-Soeharto era in Indonesia. It argues that reformasi has created and multiplied the democratic space in both the national and local arena. It has not just enlarged the number of CSOs significantly, but also changed the nature of CSOs and has opened the boundary in relations to parliament. This development has confirmed the emerging of the new political space which is more democratic in nature, as witnessed by the present of Gaventa’s political space model - “claimed space” as opposed to undemocratic “closed spaces” or “limited space” during the New Order. This paper identifies the presence of a set spaces which is determining the whole course of decision-making processes. This research found the nature of a space, of being either “claimed”, “invited” or “closed”, is not only determined by who creates the space and able to make use of it within the given boundaries, but also by its relations to other set of spaces, issues in concern, time and infrastructure set up around the spaces.

Author(s):  
Güneş Ertan

This chapter is mainly concerned with providing a concise synopsis of the state of civil society in Turkey and an overview of the decision-making processes at civil society organizations (CSOs) by combining data from various empirical studies. The chapter begins with a discussion of the roots of weak civil society in Turkey followed by an illustration of the current state of civil society as a space. The chapter will then examine policy analysis practices in CSOs with a focus on prevalent decision making structures and the role of external funds in addition to agenda setting and evaluation processes. The chapter concludes by arguing that CSOs in Turkey are still yet to become effective implementers of policy analysis tools.


Author(s):  
Annika Björkdahl ◽  
Johanna Mannergren Selimovic

Civil society is often understood as a normative vehicle for the promotion of human rights and democracy, as it plays a central role in ensuring gender equality and advocating for local ownership in the decision-making processes of states. Civil society agents and organizations have been instrumental in promoting and advancing the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. In this chapter, we examine the experiences of Bosnian Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and their activities to advance a gender-just peace. Drawing on examples from the Bosnian case study, we argue that women civil society organizations are key actors, as they not only set the agenda when it comes to WPS, they also play a key role in ensuring that the WPS principles are institutionalized and operationalized in policy. Moreover, we observe that women CSOs are particularly successful in advocating for the needs of victims of conflict-related sexual-based violence.


2015 ◽  
pp. 184-203
Author(s):  
Kamarudin

In the post New-Order era, legislative function given to Indonesian House of Representatives seems more obvious after an Act Number 12 of 2011 juncto Act Number 10 of 2004 on Regulations Making has covered that public has the right to participate in law-making processes. Enactive regulations open opportunity for public to participate in a statute-making processes. Nevertheless, the given opportunity of participation is procedurally still limited and not in full and meaningful participation level. Existing public participation only covers consultation, not a real participation. Public should be able to participate in decision-making processes. Meanwhile, public participation level is substantially still depended on Parliament Members’ spirit of publicness to accommodate public aspiration and to put it on as a norm of statute.


Author(s):  
Alison Harcourt ◽  
George Christou ◽  
Seamus Simpson

The conclusion situates the book’s findings in academic debates on democracy and the Internet, global self-regulation, and civil society, and international decision-making processes in unstructured environments. It assesses whether current standards-developing organization (SDO) decision-making is able to bridge historical representation gaps and deficiencies. A nuanced pattern is emerging with increasing inclusion of a wider number of actors within SDO fora. The first part of the chapter returns to the Multiple Streams (MS) framework applied to the case studies on a comparative basis. It identifies key processes under which SDO rules of interaction are established at the international level and explains which interests have come to the fore within decision-making highlighting the occurrence of policy entrepreneurship, forum shopping, and coupling. The final part explores additional frameworks for SDO regulation where spaces for public interest consideration might occur in the future. These are opportunities for inserting public interest considerations into international and national Acts, certification programmes, and the move towards open source solutions for Internet management. The book concludes that, although the literature is expansive on the interaction of corporate sector actors within SDOs, the study of other actors, such as digital rights groups, civil society, academics, policy entrepreneurs and the technical community as a whole, has been underdressed in the literature on international self-regulatory fora to date. In this respect, the book raises important questions of representation of the public interest at the international level by having addressed the actions of actors within SDO fora who promote public interest goals.


2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 161-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLE KOVALEV ◽  
JOHANN KÖPPEL ◽  
ALEXANDER DROZDOV ◽  
ECKHARDT DITTRICH

Since 1988, the Russian Federation has required that laws, plans, programs and all kind of projects undergo an environmental assessment. A mandatory component of the EIA in Russia is public participation. In this paper different case studies are used to find out to what extent public could influence environmental decision making processes from the early eighties until 2002. The cases selected include several where the public was passive or where it had limited activities, but also some where the participation was strong and projects were improved or stopped. As far as these case studies highlighted, the civil society in Russia can be described as an organized and sometimes strong factor in the approval process. The behaviour displayed by decision-makers, however, revealed at times a remarkable democratic deficit.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-243
Author(s):  
Anna Visser

Civil society organizations (CSOs) in Ireland receive significant state funding and institutional support according to the logic that they are important contributors to democratic governance, with the effect that the CSO sector has expanded and become more embedded in formal decision-making processes over the past several decades. At the same time, dependency on government funding exposes CSOs to three important challenges: to stay true to activist mandates in the face of pressure from state funders to focus on service provision; to maintain accountability to constituents while also satisfying the vertically oriented accountability requirements of the state; and to nurture collaboration among CSOs in a context of competition for state funding. University-based activists, who are also reliant on (increasingly scarce) government funding, face similar challenges, and therefore should pay more attention to debates regarding state funding in the CSO sphere. By working together to overcome common challenges associated with state funding, activists in both spheres can more effectively contribute to progressive social change.


Author(s):  
Stephen Burgess ◽  
Don Schauder

This chapter discusses a model that has been set up to assist small businesses in the decision-making processes associated with setting up a Web site by which they can interact with their customers. Specifically, the chapter addresses the use of a spreadsheet to support decision-making processes in relation to the level of capital needed to devote to the Web site and who should be used to develop it. The chapter describes the process followed, from the initial SWOT analysis used to collect information about the business to the decision-making process modelled in the spreadsheet.


2022 ◽  
pp. 242-263
Author(s):  
Obindra B. Chand ◽  
Sudeep Uprety

Despite the significant social and political changes over the last five decades in Nepal, persons with disabilities (PwDs) still face challenges in their everyday lives. Lack of meaningful participation of PwDs in leadership and decision-making processes, social stigma, discrimination, and inaccessible physical facilities have excluded PwDs from freely exercising fundamental rights such as voting. Mass media and civil society occasionally raise issues and problems faced by PwDs. Equally, the dearth of data regarding disability has created further challenges to policymakers and planners to understand the diversity of PwD issues at large. Based on a qualitative study, this chapter aims to explore the participation of PwDs particularly in the different phases of policy formulation (such as consultation and participation) at the municipal level and calls for crucial actions for ensuring meaningful participation of PwDs in democratic processes in Nepal in the current federal context.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréas Godsäter ◽  
Fredrik Söderbaum

This article expands our knowledge about the role of civil society in the formulation and implementation of social policy at the regional level, and it focuses on the issue of HIV/AIDS in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The analysis critically examines the conventional view that the involvement of civil society organizations in regional social policy contributes to participatory processes and reduces the democratic deficit of regional intergovernmental organizations. There are three key questions. Firstly, to what extent and how do civil society actors participate in SADC policy making and decision making in the field of HIV/AIDS? Secondly, what functions do civil society actors perform in regional policy design and implementation? Thirdly, what patterns of inclusion and exclusion exist? The study is based upon in-depth fieldwork and numerous semi-structured interviews with a range of policy makers, donors and civil society representatives. From these, it is concluded that SADC member states, and to some extent also the SADC Secretariat, limit and even undermine civil society involvement in decision making and policy formulation. By implication, civil society’s main role lies in service delivery and legitimating state-steered regional social policy at the expense of deeper, more genuinely participatory processes.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document