Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

egarding the research questions, the overall assessment of Armenian civil society and some final
observations on the applicability of our theoretical framework.
I. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for this study primarily concerns overlaps and elusive borders. In our
study, we examine both organised and less-organised elements of civil society (the NGOs and
the activists). Hence, the theoretical framework borrows from two distinct and extensive schools
of thought: civil society (understood primarily as voluntary associations) and social movements.
The overlap between these two scholarly traditions is rarely explored, and the border is indeed
blurry. Another blurry border we explore in our work is the elusive distinction between civic and
political activism. While the protagonists of our study often position themselves as non-political
actors, the repertoires they employ are often those of non-conventional political participation.
The social issues they seek to address are also often embedded in politics. Thus, the theoretical
framework presented in this chapter is broad (sometimes at the expense of depth) and might even
appear patchy at times, as we are struggling to bring together various strands of literature. We
begin by introducing the concept of civil society and its connection to democracy on the one
hand and the literature on social movements on the other hand. We then discuss civic and
political activism as forms of actions that manifest the existence of civil society or created the
basis on which social movements can be formed. We touch upon the relationship between civic
and political activism and youth engagement in those activities. We conclude with a discussion
of the role of mass media (traditional and newly developing social media) in shaping civic
activism, the civil society sphere and social movements’ potential and repertoire of actions.
Civil society, generally defined as a sphere of social activities and organisations outside
the state, the market and the private sphere that is based on principles of voluntarism, pluralism
and tolerance (Anheier 2004; Diamond 1999; Linz and Stepan 1997; Salamon, Sokolowski, and
List 2003), is often considered by scholars of democratisation as an element that facilitates the
transition to democracy (Geremek 1996b; Karatnycky and Ackerman 2005), strengthens
democratic consolidation (Carroll and Carroll 2004; Putnam, Leonardi, and Nanetti 1994;
Tusalem 2007) and improves various qualities of established democracies (Dekker, Koopmans,
and van den Broek 1997; Moyser and Parry 1997). Involvement in voluntary organisations
contributes to the development of civic skills (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995) and is
associated with higher levels of political activism and generalised social trust (Dekker and van
den Broek 2005; Howard and Gilbert 2008).
Interest in civil society organisations as promoters of democracy can be dated back to
Alexis de Tocqueville (2000 [1864]), who hypothesised that associations are “schools of
democracy” where people develop habits of cooperation and public-spiritedness. Almond and
Verba (1963) explored the link between voluntary associations and political culture and
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