engleski

The Dark Side of Civil Society in Western Balkans: Conservative NGOs and Liberal Democracy

The rise of various illiberal and extreme NGOs in the US, and their consequent spread to Europe, represents a threat not only to the participative element of these democracies but also to liberal democracies as such. These organisations have begun using the mechanisms of participatory democracy, combining them with populist and anti- establishment narratives and polarised social media to limit or reduce the rights and liberties of marginalised minorities. They thus show that civil society can have a dark side and threaten the participatory potential of democratic regimes. Such organisations can easily be identified in the Western Balkans and here we will focus on Croatian cases. The NGOs observed have adopted an appropriate vocabulary to meet the dominant human rights discourse. They no longer use terms that are usually linked to racism or nationalism, but instead shape their political messages using positive non-ideologised terms or liberal terms whose meaning has been changed or deformed. This new vocabulary, among other things, differentiates them from some older movements and organisations which promoted the same aims, but were less efficient in attracting popular support.

Civil society, political extremism, liberal democracy, Western Balkans

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