The effects of organized labor on regime change in developing countries are not clear-cut. Optimists argue that union agitation is conducive to both democratic transition and consolidation processes. Pessimists hold that unions will support any regime that is conducive to their demands....

China's shift in energy policies has been broader, deeper and more successful than that of most other emerging economies, although the economic costs of this transition are tremendous because China is an over-industrialized country whose production is highly energy-intense and it depends on...

Whether associations help to democratise authoritarian rule or support those in power is a contested issue that so far lacks a cross-regional perspective. Drawing on relational sociology, this paper explores the impact of state power in Algeria, Mozambique, and Vietnam on associations and vice...

In this paper we challenge the conventional wisdom that COVID-19 and related legal restrictions invariably reinforce a global trend of shrinking civic space. We argue that the legal guarantee of civil liberties is not the sole factor configuring civic space. Instead, civic space is best...

Associationalism under authoritarian rule is not automatically a good thing. The empirical findings laid out in this article indicate that authoritarian dispositions and practices are prevalent in all types of Vietnamese civic organizations, at least as far as internal decisionmaking processes...

This paper analyses the role of actors from developing countries in global processes of policy making and governance. To systematically examine the channels of influence of Southern actors and the interactions in global governance it develops the concept of interfaces. It differentiates between...

The proliferation of social organizations in China has engendered a lively debate about how to conceptualize these social forces. This paper argues that such a conceptualization should take into account the role that both the party-state and social actors attribute to social organizations. With...

Um die Gestalt und die Funktionsweise politischer Herrschaftssysteme zu verstehen und zu erklären, ist es notwendig, deren informelle Elemente - die neben formalen Elementen existieren und mit diesen interagieren - in den Blick zu nehmen. In der Tat haben sich die Politikwissenschaft und die...

The institutionalization of political parties is said to be important for democratic development, but its measurement has remained a neglected area of research. We understand the institutionalization of political organizations as progress in four dimensions: roots in society, level of...