Master Thesis, IES/VUB, Brussels 2017
Abstract: This thesis studies the European Union’s support to the Armenian civil society for democratization of the country. Since Armenia joined the EU Eastern Partnership in 2009, civil society organizations are more strengthened partially by the EU’s extensive support. Still, a significant progress of the democratic situation in Armenia has not taken place. The EU leverage on the Armenian government is found limited in the of lack of political will of the Government to implement political and economic reforms foreseen by mutual agreements. To ensure reforms in Armenia, the EU relies both on the leverage on the government and linkage with the civil society, as well as on governance model of administrative cooperation in sectoral reforms. Lack of political competition in the country limits the civil society’s effectiveness in promoting reforms. While the CSOs are more radical in their strive for profound democratic transformation, EU focuses on “tangible outcomes” in good governance and socio-economic reforms. The CSOs and the Government are divided by mutual mistrust but episodically get around the table only by the facilitation of the EU to work on EU-supported reforms which reflects an overlap of linkage and leverage. The use of linkage has strengthened the Armenian civil society but its bottom-up effort is limited by a glass ceiling of political conditions in the country. The EU-supported CSOs have managed to raise public awareness and sensibility in many problems of human rights and democracy but the long-term effects of this success and establishment of a civic culture should be studied in the future.
See the thesis in the attached file: TsovinarNazaryan_EUlinkageArmenia
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