Abstract
In this course, students will discuss the mutual connection between the transformation of political cleavages, the increasing political polarization, and how civil society organizations (CSOs) operate. To explain the process through which these ongoing transformations affect CSOs, and how the strategies chosen by CSOs inform the transformation of cleavages themselves, the course will draw on three cases: Hungary, Israel and Poland.
Throughout the course students will shortly discuss the history, and current political developments of the three cases in light of an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, addressing:
Political cleavage theory and theories of political polarization
The relationship between the closing space for civil society and the concept of political opportunity structures
Theories of civil society, especially the development of civil society in authoritarian context and the population ecology of interest groups/civil society
Memory politics, crisis perceptions and political cleavage formation