The Selective Closure of Civic Space

Scholars and NGOs have been raising alarms about the increasing political restraints that civil society organizations face globally. In this paper, we argue closure is in fact a selective mechanism: governments attempt to reorganize civic space through dual process of in- exclusion organizations. Civil identified as critical or even anti-government obstruction restraints, whereas simultaneously state support for pro-government expanded. Governments instrumentalize certain their own benefit: they are sponsored used influence realm ways directly legitimize power maintain an appearance democracy. We illustrate our claims by discussing reorganization some countries Central Eastern Europe case women’s rights activism.