This year will mark 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As the Soviet system was losing ground, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the “end of history”, predicting “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”. Undoubtedly, civil society is an integral and indispensable component in such a government.
Today, there is a clear divergence between countries that emerged in the post-Soviet space. One group, composed of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia, is struggling to build open systems of governance based on democratic principles. All of these countries, recognized as “partly free” by Freedom House, have vibrant civil society sectors with some of the strongest sustainability ratings in the region. Even though the state is not seriously impeding citizen action, corruption is still high, reforms are slow, and state capture prevents a competitive market economy. In addition, weak governance undermines civil society organizations’ (CSOs) efforts to have real structural impact on transition.
The other group—which includes countries such as Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian republics—is filled with semi-autocratic, “not free” systems, where elections are manipulated, the press is controlled by the state, and civil society is struggling to take root due to obstacles created by repressive states.
