University of Colorado Civic Space Final Report

It was written by Andy Baker and others from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and published in 2017. The paper explores strategies that civil society groups can use to maintain civic space and resist government repression in countries that are backsliding towards authoritarianism. The authors identify five strategies that have been used successfully in some cases, including alliance-building, indirect resistance, non-violent protest, digital technology, and maintaining organizational autonomy. The paper also discusses the risks and downsides of each strategy and concludes with a set of questions that civil society actors can ask themselves as they seek to maintain civic space in increasingly authoritarian contexts.