The relationship between civil society and political sphere: the case of the law on the development of ngos

The Relationship Between Civil Society and Political Sphere: the Case of the Law on the Development of NGOs This paper aims to demonstrate what kind of relationship between the civil society and the state was constructed in the context of the adoption if the law in Development of NGOs. The paper draws on theoretical insights of J. L. Cohen and A. Arato in order to demonstrate an ideal normative model of civil society – state relationship that helps to encourage the development of democratic political culture. Studying civil society – state relationship in the process of law-making presupposes great importance of argumentation and communicative practices for the analysis. Therefore, assumptions of argumentative policy analysis are also presented in the paper as part of the methodology. Discourse analysis as theorized by M. A. Hajer and interpreted by F. Fischer is used in order to answer the research question – what kind of relationship between the civil society and the state was constructed. Discourse analysis helped to uncover two competing narratives of how civil society-state relationship is understood between two civil society groups. Three types of texts were analysed: 11 semi-structured interviews with participants of the process, legislative documents of the Lithuanian Parliament and articles from the media (15 articles in total). The first group that initiated the adoption of this law saw the state as a possible collaborator whereas the second group that opposed the law saw the dangers of state interference in the civil society in the context of regulation created. In the end, the narrative of the first group is reflected in the law adopted. This is interpreted as a reflection of the two spheres getting closer together but without civil society emerging as the dominant element as would be J. L. Cohen’s and A. Arato’s ideal outcome for the development of democratic political culture