Looking for Solidarność in Central Asia: The Role of Human Rights Organizations in Political Change

Abstract

According to scholars of resource dependency, foreign funding can weaken rather than strengthen civil society abroad, ultimately impeding its effectiveness. Yet the spate of recent “democratic revolutions” in semiauthoritarian, postcommunist states suggests that pumping foreign money into the nongovernmental sphere can be an effective strategy. In this paper Brian Grodsky argues that a critical factor in assessing the likelihood that a given organizational movement will succumb to the ills of resource dependency is the type of politicization within that movement. Those organizations composed of members primarily motivated by ideology are logically less likely to succumb to resource dependency than those organizations dominated by political aspirants intent on converting democratization into their own political power. Two case studies, communist-era Poland and contemporary Uzbekistan, provide support for this theory.

Obstacles and momentum on the path to post-genocide and mass atrocity reparations: A comparative analysis, 1945–2010

“…trials or truth commissions) and the advantages and disadvantages of each justice type (Barkan, 2000;Bass, 2000;Brahm, 2007;Hayner, 2002;Minow, 1998;Osiel, 1997;Van Zyl, 2002). However, the literature on transitional justice has expanded to consider the roles played by victim groups and advocacy networks in compelling states to engage in transitional justice and international actors to support these demands (Grodsky, 2007;Keck and Sikkink, 1998;McEvoy and McGregor, 2008;Skaar, 1999). Social movement theorization offers to this literature a conceptual language for examining how victim movements and advocacy organizations frame their justice demands, mobilize resources to pressure state and international power holders, and take advantage of political openings when there exists heightened public and political receptivity to transitional justice demands.…”

The Orange Revolution: ‘People's Revolution’ or Revolutionary Coup?

“…2.On the 1989 revolution see Kumar (2001). There is a growing, but relatively small, number of articles on ‘coloured revolutions’ and democracy promotion: Herd (2005); D'Anieri (2006); Grodsky (2007); Beissinger (2007). Among the better works on Ukraine's Orange Revolution is the special edition of Communist Studies and Transition Politics on the ‘Democratic Revolution in Ukraine’ (March 2007).…”

Co-optation or Empowerment? The Fate of Pro-Democracy NGOs after the Rose Revolution

“…142-3;Kopecky & Mudde 2003, p. 5;Ikelegbe 2001, p. 11). Most importantly, their goals and output can make these organisations domestically isolated and irrelevant, depriving them de facto of the representativeness they claim lies at their core (Grodsky 2007;Mutua 2009, p. 29;Diamond 1999, p. 253). …”