An increasing amount of attention has been devoted to understanding the role of civil society inthe global politics, although little has been done to identify and analyze conditions under whichcivil society can function as agents of democratization and development. This article reviews thischanging discourse that acknowledges civil society as an independent actor and the approaches todefine “the enabling environment” for civil society development. The main part of thecontribution presents the findings of an empirical investigation demonstrating the situation ofenabling environment for civil society in Turkey in the EU accession process. Three major tenets ofenabling environment are assessed: (1) Operational activity (law on associations and foundations,problems in registration, disproportionate audit, lack of statistical data/ consistent policy towardsCSOs); (2) Speech and advocacy (freedom of expression, internet regulation and pressure on socialnetworks); (3) Freedom of Assembly (constitutional rights, law on meeting and demonstrations,responses to Gezi protests). The empirical data is drawn from Third Sector Foundation of Turkey(TUSEV) publications2 on these dimensions and Monitoring Reports drafted by TUSEV withinproject entitled Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development Projectfunded by the European Union
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