Institutional Transformations of the Interplay of Civic Engagement and Institutional Politics

This chapter explores the evolving relationship between civic engagement and institutional politics. Building on Ricoeur’s distinction between the political (collective action ) and politics (conflictual power struggles), the interplay of civic engagement with institutional politics is conceived as relating to the way in which collective action influences political outcomes and policies. Civil society organizations play a crucial mediating role in integrating civic initiatives with state machinery. Such a role needs to be apprehended from an institutional perspective recognizing the role of institutions in shaping interests and calculations and acknowledging the influence of historical contexts as well as the multidimensional character of the historical divisions structuring civil society. Building on Rokkan’s concepts of ‘cleavage structure’ and ‘critical junctures’, the structuration of civil society can be seen as resulting from the transformations of the social structure and afferent identities. Recent critical junctures contribute to transforming the interplay between civic engagement and institutional politics—especially the ubiquity of digital platforms like social media. Such transformations have the potential to weaken political integration through traditional organizational channels. While digitalization and social media have expanded opportunities for civic engagement, they may contribute to a more ephemeral and less politically integrated form of civic participation. This raises concerns about the implications of these changes for democratic politics and the traditional role of civil society organizations in political processes.