Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

Contents
List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 6
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... 6
List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. 6
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 7
I. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 9
1.1. Civic Activism ..................................................................................................................... 10
1.1.1. Civic Activism and Political Activism ........................................................................... 12
1.1.2. Youth Engagement ....................................................................................................... 12
1.2. Traditional Mass Media and the Rise of Social Media: Impact on Activism ....................... 13
II. Armenian Civil Society: Background ........................................................................................ 15
2.1. The NGO Sector ............................................................................................................... 16
2.2. Civic Initiatives .................................................................................................................... 17
III. Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 18
3.1. Secondary Data Analysis .................................................................................................... 19
3.2. Case Studies ....................................................................................................................... 20
3.3 Interviews and Focus Group Discussions ........................................................................... 21
IV. Armenian Public Attitudes and Political Culture: Setting the Stage ....................................... 23
4.1. Descriptive Analysis of the Survey Data ............................................................................ 24
4.1.1. Civic Participation and Civic Activism ......................................................................... 24
4.1.2. Political Participation.................................................................................................... 25
4.1.3. Media Landscape, Use of Social Media ........................................................................ 26
4.2. Inferential Analysis: Are Online Media Users the Same as Activists? ................................ 27
4.2.1. On the Receiving End of Online Information .............................................................. 28
4.2.2. Actual and Potential Activists ...................................................................................... 30
4.3. Summing Up: Attitudes and Participation of the Broader Public ...................................... 32
V. Civic Initiatives in Armenia: General Overview and Analysis .................................................. 33
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