Looking Back on 25 Years of Civil Society

The “Drivers of Democratization in East Central Europe; 25 Years of Civil Society” conference at CEU Nov. 24 explored the ways in which civil society evolved in East Central Europe in the last 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of communist regimes. Co-hosted by CEU’s Center for EU Enlargement Studies and the Budapest Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the conference featured experts from Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.  

Peter Balazs, director of the Center for EU Enlargement Studies (CENS) described how the role of civil society on the national level affects a country’s legitimacy within the EU in his welcome address.

Andras Hegedus, chair of the Hungarian Europe Society, moderated the first panel of the conference whose topic was civil society and 25 years of post-communist transformations in East Central Europe. Hegedus noted that unlike Prague and Berlin, Budapest hasn’t organized many events to commemorate the regime change, underlining the fact that there’s a debate in Hungary on what to celebrate exactly and whether to celebrate at all.


Discussing civil society and 25 years of post-communist transformations in East Central Europe. Is there a reason to celebrate? Photo: CEU/Daniel Vegel

Bogdan Mihai Radu and Zselyke Tofalvi of CENS presented their paper on “Gods and Caesars: The Role of Churches in the Breakdown of Communist Regimes of Central and Eastern Europe,” exploring how the relationship between church and regime, which was different in every country in the region, affected civil societies.

In his talk on “Civil Societies: From State Socialism to New Challenges,” Mateusz Falkowski of the Institute of Political Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences highlighted a major difference between Poland and other East Central European countries saying that “civil society in Poland wasn’t built from scratch after 1989”, but it was in fact civil society that led to democratization in the country. Civil society is not linked to systematic transformation anymore, but to the political and economic situation within Poland and Europe, Falkowski  said of the change in the past 25 years. Some actors of civil society are now referred to as “sects,” and the question is how to include sects in democratic institutions and public policy, he added.

Gabriel Andreescu, associate professor in the Romanian National School of Political and Administrative Studies, said there were no independent structures under the Ceausescu regime, and after 1989 - similarly to what happened in the former Yugoslavia - a strong nationalist movement tried to gain legitimacy. Later civil society needed to define itself independently from communism and nationalism. After 2000, civil society was the driving force in the process of EU integration, Andreescu said.


In Romania, civil society was the driving force in the process of EU integration, Gabriel Andreescu said. Photo: CEU/Daniel Vegel

Branko Ancic, researcher in the Institute for Social Research in Croatia, presented the paper, “Role of civil society in Croatia 25 years after: What are our expectations?,” describing the different roles civil society played in former Yugoslavian states. In the 1990s, Croatian civil society reflected on the consequences of war and social circumstances, focusing on aid, health, unemployment and poverty. Between 2001 and 2005 Croatian civil society improved greatly, promoting positive values, such as tolerance and gender equality. Ancic noted that currently there’s been a shift from social movements to organizations. Donors have gained greater influence on issues due to the “NGO-zation” of civil society, and there’s a growing distance between NGOs and grassroots activities. He forecast a value crisis, rising social inequality, low social trust, the rise of conservatism not only in Croatia, but to other post-communist countries as well.

The second panel of the conference discussed the role of civil society in recent democracies, focusing on Hungary.

Andras Bozoki, professor in the Department of Political Science at CEU, described the ever-changing attitude towards civil society in Hungary: sometimes people expect too much from civil society or completely ignore it at others. In the 1980s, the moral-ethical civil society was both the instrument and the goal of change, thus becoming the blueprint for non-violent regime change. By the ‘90s, the role of civil society in a pluralist democracy had to be redefined, and the old perception of civil society, as good, and state, as bad, had to be revisited. In the 2000s, Hungary experienced the “democracy of the few” and the colonization of civil society by cartel parties. In the “broken democracy and hybrid regime” of today, civil organizations are treated as foreign agents, and due to the weakness of the actual political opposition, NGOs have to take up the role.  


Marta Pardavi discusses the past 25 years of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Photo: CEU/Daniel Vegel

Marta Pardavi, ‎co-chair at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HCC), highlighted the milestones of civil organizations in the past 25 years in Hungary, adding that although HCC turned 25 this year, they had no reason to celebrate the anniversary. From its humble beginnings in 1989, through the major achievements in the early 1990s, HCC became a mature NGO by 2000. But in 2010 the systematic undermining of independent institutions began, and in the summer of 2013 some NGOs were labelled “foreign agents.” There’s no place for policy dialogue. Old problems, such as the issue of individual civil liberties versus the police force, are resurfacing, said Pardavi regarding the current situation. She urged starting a dialogue with the larger society to show that civil organizations are not political agents.

The Director of Okotars Alapitvany (Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation), Veronika Mora said that in retrospect, the early and mid-90’s were the “golden age” of civil society in Hungary. Between 2001-2010 there was no motivation to improve, the actors of civil society “believed there was a relatively strong NGO sector in Hungary.” But in the 2010s, “what was there for a decade was now gone for good.” Civil organizations now have to find new ways to survive, and one such way is building a strong network of NGOs, Mora said, adding that since the attack on the Norwegian Fund and Okotars Alpitvany, NGOs have started a closer cooperation.


Sharing hopes and fears for the future of civil societies, Mateusz Falkowski and Bogdan Mihai Radu. Photo: CEU/Daniel Vegel

In the closing discussion, participants of the conference agreed not to call the past 25 years a “success story.” Prompted by moderator Balazs Denes, director of the European Civil Liberties Project at the Open Society Foundations, the speakers expressed their hopes and fears for the future of civil societies. Most shared in the fear that people might become dispirited and wouldn’t stand up for themselves, and hoped for the opposite.

The conference was part of CEU’s Frontiers of Democracy initiative.