[eBook] [PDF] For Civil Society’s Democratic Potential Organizational Trade-offs between Participation and Representation 1st Edition By Nicole Bolleyer

[eBook] [PDF] For Civil Society’s Democratic Potential Organizational Trade-offs between Participation and Representation 1st Edition By Nicole Bolleyer

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

In Civil Society’s Democratic Potential, Nicole Bolleyer explores which civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute to democracy, how, and why.

Organized civil society, including interest groups, political parties, and service-oriented associations, is traditionally considered a cornerstone of democracy. Constituting the organizational fabric between government and society, these organizations encompass a wide diversity of entities thought to fundamentally contribute to both democratic participation and representation. However, CSOs’ readiness and ability to serve as venues for participation, vehicles of democratic representation, or indeed both at the same time, are increasingly questioned in political science, sociology, and voluntary sector research alike.