Abstract
This study critically examines the dynamic interplay between civil society and democratization using a bibliometric analysis. The analysis is based on 461 scholarly articles published between 1977 and 2024 in the Scopus database. The data analysis was performed using Harzing Publish or Perish and VOSviewer to identify publication trends, key contributors, research impact, and emerging clusters in the field. The findings reveal that research on civil society and democratization has shown an increasing trajectory over the past decade, with the United States of America as a prominent contributor to the study. Through keyword analysis, several avenues for future exploration in civil society and democratization have been proposed. These avenues include comparative research on civil society, exploring digital transformation and civil society, investigating civil society's involvement in climate change governance and global migration, and integrating interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the challenges and opportunities for civil society in contemporary political environments.
Keywords
- Civil Society Search this journal for Civil Society (opens in a new tab)
- Social Movements Search this journal for Social Movements (opens in a new tab)
- Democracy Search this journal for Democracy (opens in a new tab)
- Democratization Search this journal for Democratization (opens in a new tab)
- Bibliometric Analysis Search this journal for Bibliometric Analysis (opens in a new tab)
References
- Ahmi, A., & Mohamad, R. (2019). Bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on web accessibility. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 7(6), 250–258.
- Ahmi, A., & Mohd Nasir, M. H. (2019). Examining the trend of the research on extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL): A bibliometric review. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 5(2), 1145–1167.
- Baxter, M. K., Lee, J., & Odai, M. (2024). The paradox of elites in civil society: A comparative study on civil society leaders’ satisfaction with democracy in the UK and Sweden. Voluntas, 35, 994–1005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-024-00669-0
- Beissinger, M. R. (2017). " Conventional" and" Virtual" civil societies in autocratic regimes. Comparative Politics, 49(3), 351-371. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041517820934267
- Boutros-Ghali, B. (1996). An agenda for democratization. New York, NY: United Nations. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/230086?ln=en&v=pdf
- Çakmak, Z. and Ta?kiran, C. (2020). Development of civil literacy scale: a study of validity and reliability. Review of International Geographical Education Online. https://doi.org/10.33403/rigeo.713522
- Criado, J. I., Ruvalcaba-Gómez, E. A., & Mendoza, R. E. V. (2018). Revisiting the open government phenomenon: A meta-analysis of the international literature. JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 10(1), 50–81. https://doi.org/10.29379/jedem.v10i1.454
- Davis, A. P., & Zhang, Y. (2023). Civil society and democracy under pressure: does authoritarian mobilization and party incapacity diminish the positive effect of civil society? The Sociological Quarterly, 65(2), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2023.2289500
- Fatton, R. (1995). Africa in the age of democratization: The civic limitations of civil society. African Studies Review, 38(2), 67-99. https://doi.org/10.2307/525318
- Faxon, H. O., Kintzi, K., Tran, V., Wine, K. Z., & Htut, S. Y. (2023). Organic online politics: Farmers, Facebook, and Myanmar's military coup. Big Data & Society, 10(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/20539517231168101
- Gibson, J. L. (2001). Social networks, civil society, and the prospects for consolidating Russia’s democratic transition. Social capital and the transition to democracy. American Journal of Political Science, 45(1), https://doi.org/51-69. 10.2307/2669359
- Hadenius, A., & Uggla, F. (1996). Making civil society work, promoting democratic development: What can states and donors do? World Development, 24(10), 1621-1639. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(96)00062-9
- Hearn, J. (2001). The ‘uses and abuses’ of civil society in Africa. Review of African Political Economy, 28(87). https://doi.org/10.1080/03056240108704502
- Hendriks, C. M. (2006). Integrated deliberation: Reconciling civil society's dual role in deliberative democracy. Political Studies, 54(3), 486-508. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00612.x
- Howard, P. N., & Hussain, M. M. (2013). Democracy's fourth wave?: digital media and the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press.
- Jaysawal, N. (2013). Civil society, democratic space, and social work. Sage Open, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013504934
- Lewis, D. (2002). Civil society in African contexts: reflections on the usefulness of a concept. Development and Change, 33(4), 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00270
- Mace, G. (2023). Democratic Practices in MERCOSUR and the OAS: What Space for Transnational Civil Society? Global Society, 38(3), 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2023.2237044
- Mercer, C. (2002). NGOs, civil society and democratization: a critical review of the literature. Progress in Development Studies, 2(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.1191/1464993402ps027ra
- Mexhuani, B. and Rrahmani, F. (2017). The relationship between political parties and civil society. Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs, 05(04). https://doi.org/10.4172/2332-0761.1000295
- Moura, R. A. d., Bastos, H. A. D., Brandt, K. C. d. O., Ronca, D. B., & Ginani, V. C. (2022). Public consultation in the construction of the district food and nutrition policy. Saúde em Debate, 46(134), 803–818. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-1104202213415i
- Newton, K. (2001). Trust, social capital, civil society, and democracy. International Political Science Review, 22(2), 201-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512101222004
- Okowa, M. (2015). The fallacy behind the role of civil society in transitional democracies: the case of Kenyan ethno-political conflicts. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 9(3), 86-89. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajpsir2013.0640
- Omeni, A. (2022). Framing injustice: special anti-robbery squads (SARS) in Nigeria and the #EndSARS protest response from a social movement theory perspective. Modern Africa, 10(2), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v10i2.409
- Phatharathananunth, S. (2006). Civil society and democratization: social movements in northeast Thailand. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
- Ramcilovic-Suominen, S. (2024). Democracy through technocracy? Reinventing civil society as a state-monitored and unpaid service provider in the EU FLEGT VPA in Laos. Global Environmental Change, 85, 102809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102809
- Saab, F., Bermejo, P. H. d. S., Garcia, G. C., Pereira, J. S., & Silva, S. d. A. M. e. (2018). Does public consultation encourage social participation? Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 31(5), 796-814. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-11-2017-0169
- Schrama, R., & Zhelyazkova, A. (2018). “You can’t have one without the other”: The differential impact of civil society strength on the implementation of EU policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(7), 1029–1048. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2018.1433709
- Scholte, J. A. (2002). Civil society and democracy in global governance. Global Governance, 8(3), 281-304. https://doi.org/10.2307/27800346
- Schotten, M., Meester, W. J., Steiginga, S., & Ross, C. A. (2017). A brief history of Scopus: The world’s largest abstract and citation database of scientific literature. In Research analytics (pp. 31-58). Auerbach Publications.
- Sharif, M. H. M., Ahmi, A., & Rosli, K. (2020). Measuring the trend of the research on social media in SMEs: a bibliometric evaluation. Test Engineering and Management, 82, 6437-6446.
- Simsa, R. (2019). Civil society is captured by early-stage autocrats in well-developed democracies – the case of Austria. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 10(3), 20190029. https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2019-0029
- Tang, S. Y., & Zhan, X. (2008). Civic environmental NGOs, civil society, and democratization in China. The Journal of Development Studies, 44(3), 425-448. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00220380701848541
- Tusalem, R. F. (2007). A boon or a bane? The role of civil society in third- and fourth-wave democracies. International Political Science Review, 28(3), 361-386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512107077097
- Udzhmadzhuridze, H., Bilan, S., & Kryvoshein, V. V. (2019). Individual significance of political participation in today’s Ukrainian society: the case of Dnipro city. Economics & Sociology, 12(1), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789x.2019/12-1/11
- Uhlin, A. (2009). Which characteristics of civil society organizations support what aspects of democracy? Evidence from post-communist Latvia. International Political Science Review, 30(3), 271-295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512109105639
- White, G. (1994). Civil society, democratization and development (I): Clearing the analytical ground. Democratization, 1(2), 375-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510349408403399
Downloads
No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.
How to Cite
Share this article
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Irwana Nooridayu Muhamad Hakimi, Azmil Mohd Tayeb, Hafizah Hammad Ahmad Khan, Mohamad Ili Afiq Ibrahim (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
Keywords
- Civil Society Search this journal for Civil Society (opens in a new tab)
- Social Movements Search this journal for Social Movements (opens in a new tab)
- Democracy Search this journal for Democracy (opens in a new tab)
- Democratization Search this journal for Democratization (opens in a new tab)
- Bibliometric Analysis Search this journal for Bibliometric Analysis (opens in a new tab)
Section
Published in
Vol. 16 No. 4(I) (2024)
Cybercrime Awareness, Financial Wellbeing & Age-Friendly Cities
View issue contents
Published
Submissions
Have research to publish? Information Management and Business Review welcomes submissions.
Make a Submission