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In this article, the efforts of civil society organizations to influence climate change policymaking in three countries with very different traditions of democratic decision making are compared: in a newly developed democracy (Indonesia), in an established democracy in the Global South (India), and in an established democracy in the Global North with an exceptionally strong civil society (Finland). The empirical material consists of 57 in-depth interviews with Civil Society Organization (CSO) representatives. The following three arguments about CSO influence in climate change politics are made: (1) the nation-state is an important avenue of influence for most CSOs, alongside global institutions; (2) CSOs influence states through specific contact points, rather than by challenging the state as a uniform entity; and (3) CSO actors' perception of influence in climate politics may be stronger where state capacity is weaker, rather than where civil society itself is strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how civil society organizations survive multiple regime changes. This is a case study of Junák, a Czech scouting organization, that experienced the shift from democratic capitalism to authoritarian communism and back again. I build on archival and interview data to test how new institutional concepts of the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional pressures fare when applied to organizational survival across regime change. I found that Junák responded to institutional pressures through a multiplicity of responses, including isomorphic, ceremonial, and innovative changes as well continuity of selected attributes. During communism, ceremonial change prevailed, helping the CSO to preserve some of its organizational aspects. After 1989, Junák opted for a combination of change and continuity. This case study raises new questions about voluntarism in Central and Eastern Europe during authoritarianism and its impact on civil society and its organizations after 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the volunteer movement in Ukraine. After the 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity and the subsequent military confrontation with Russia, the volunteer movement became an influential and trusted actor capable of mobilizing a large number of supporters and a significant amount of resources. Donations made to volunteer initiatives represent in Ukraine a percentage of the country's GDP similar to that seen in some Western countries. However, compared with volunteerism in developed countries, volunteer initiatives in Ukraine have several distinct features: a mostly informal character; their reliance on a hard core of committed and active leaders; and connections with the nationalist movement understood here as an actor aiming to attain and maintain the identity of the Ukrainian nation-state in the making. The article explores the intersection between warfare, nation-building, state-building and democratization using Ukraine as a case in point. Data from two sources inform the analysis: a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with leaders of the volunteer movement (N = 22) and results of a survey conducted on a representative sample (N = 2040). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]