The Battle for Civil Society

“The Battle for Civil Society” will develop a toolkit that would give an international organization a way to flag and discount a government-organized NGO behind a glowing human-rights submission or a journalist the tools to avoid amplifying a non-credible election observer report. The project is relevant for four policy (and policy-adjacent) communities:

1. Bilateral, multilateral, and private foundation donors that are recalibrating their work after the aid collapse;
2. International organizations that manage peace and governance, including the OSCE/ODIHR, UN human rights bodies, and the African Union, whose processes illiberal NGOs are actively gaming;
3. International and local NGOs that are navigating closing space; and
4. Journalists and analysts covering civic space and disinformation, who shape the public narrative.

This project’s impact will involve communicating research finding via PWH-supported events and publications targeting those four key audiences.

Faculty Lead on this Project

Sarah Bush is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines how international actors try to aid democracy, promote women’s representation, and influence elections globally. A more recent interest is the politics of climate change. She is the author or co-author of three books with Cambridge University Press, the most recent of which is Crowded Out: The Competitive Landscape of Contemporary NGOs. Dr. Bush’s work has also appeared in academic journals including the American Political Science Review and International Organization and in other outlets such as The Economist, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post. She received her PhD from Princeton University.