The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia
Abstract
This article deals with the social accountability activities of civil society organizations in Serbia and Cambodia. In both countries, they emerged with the conceptual and financial support of international development agencies; yet, the outputs were mediated by the social and political contexts. Still, these activities have some joint features: they (1) boost both understanding and awareness rather than solely mobilizing social interests; (2) target the interests of individual citizens rather than the interests of social-based groups or classes; (3) promote state cooperation instead of confrontation and (3) insist on the use of technical policy-related tools and mechanisms instead of political mobilization. The social accountability initiatives analyzed here have followed a policy-not-politics or depoliticized approach. As a consequence, they were ineffective in mobilizing citizens and social groups in a manner that would efficiently demand more accountability. On the other hand, gove...rnments contested civil society and appropriated its accountability discourses and strategies in an effort that can be read as an attempt to resist imposing government accountability and rule of law and pacifying present and future civic activism.
Keywords:
Social accountability / Serbia / Government accountability / Depoliticization / Civil society / CambodiaSource:
Voluntas, 2018, 29, 3, 590-602Publisher:
- Springer, New York
Funding / projects:
- Asian Foundation (TAF)
- London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) within the framework of the LSE Justice and Security Research Program
DOI: 10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z
ISSN: 0957-8765
WoS: 000440114900011
Scopus: 2-s2.0-85044475706
Collections
Institution/Community
Pravni fakultet / Faculty of Law University of BelgradeTY - JOUR AU - Vuković, Danilo PY - 2018 UR - https://ralf.ius.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/1057 AB - This article deals with the social accountability activities of civil society organizations in Serbia and Cambodia. In both countries, they emerged with the conceptual and financial support of international development agencies; yet, the outputs were mediated by the social and political contexts. Still, these activities have some joint features: they (1) boost both understanding and awareness rather than solely mobilizing social interests; (2) target the interests of individual citizens rather than the interests of social-based groups or classes; (3) promote state cooperation instead of confrontation and (3) insist on the use of technical policy-related tools and mechanisms instead of political mobilization. The social accountability initiatives analyzed here have followed a policy-not-politics or depoliticized approach. As a consequence, they were ineffective in mobilizing citizens and social groups in a manner that would efficiently demand more accountability. On the other hand, governments contested civil society and appropriated its accountability discourses and strategies in an effort that can be read as an attempt to resist imposing government accountability and rule of law and pacifying present and future civic activism. PB - Springer, New York T2 - Voluntas T1 - The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia EP - 602 IS - 3 SP - 590 VL - 29 DO - 10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z UR - conv_3012 ER -
@article{ author = "Vuković, Danilo", year = "2018", abstract = "This article deals with the social accountability activities of civil society organizations in Serbia and Cambodia. In both countries, they emerged with the conceptual and financial support of international development agencies; yet, the outputs were mediated by the social and political contexts. Still, these activities have some joint features: they (1) boost both understanding and awareness rather than solely mobilizing social interests; (2) target the interests of individual citizens rather than the interests of social-based groups or classes; (3) promote state cooperation instead of confrontation and (3) insist on the use of technical policy-related tools and mechanisms instead of political mobilization. The social accountability initiatives analyzed here have followed a policy-not-politics or depoliticized approach. As a consequence, they were ineffective in mobilizing citizens and social groups in a manner that would efficiently demand more accountability. On the other hand, governments contested civil society and appropriated its accountability discourses and strategies in an effort that can be read as an attempt to resist imposing government accountability and rule of law and pacifying present and future civic activism.", publisher = "Springer, New York", journal = "Voluntas", title = "The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia", pages = "602-590", number = "3", volume = "29", doi = "10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z", url = "conv_3012" }
Vuković, D.. (2018). The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia. in Voluntas Springer, New York., 29(3), 590-602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z conv_3012
Vuković D. The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia. in Voluntas. 2018;29(3):590-602. doi:10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z conv_3012 .
Vuković, Danilo, "The Quest for Government Accountability and Rule of Law: Conflicting Strategies of State and Civil Society in Cambodia and Serbia" in Voluntas, 29, no. 3 (2018):590-602, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9984-z ., conv_3012 .