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Mirroring the Masses? A Cross-National Comparison of Civil Society Elite Composition

Lee, Jayeon LU and Scaramuzzino, Roberto LU (2024) p.51-73
Abstract
This chapter explores the composition of civil society elites and to what extent this differs from the general population, what we call the ‘civil society elite-masses gap’. While the civil society elites are, from a normative point of view, expected to be representative of the general population in terms of their social composition and attitudes, professionalisation and elitisation of civil society might lead to exclusive patterns of social composition of the top-level leadership strata of civil society organisations. This chapter presents an analysis of novel comparative survey data targeting the top-level leaders of the most resource-rich civil society organisations in five European contexts. The results show that there are striking... (More)
This chapter explores the composition of civil society elites and to what extent this differs from the general population, what we call the ‘civil society elite-masses gap’. While the civil society elites are, from a normative point of view, expected to be representative of the general population in terms of their social composition and attitudes, professionalisation and elitisation of civil society might lead to exclusive patterns of social composition of the top-level leadership strata of civil society organisations. This chapter presents an analysis of novel comparative survey data targeting the top-level leaders of the most resource-rich civil society organisations in five European contexts. The results show that there are striking similarities in terms of attitudes among civil society elites across different civil society regimes that are distinct from general populations. The civil society elite-masses gap in terms of sociodemographic backgrounds is also evident, but the pattern varies across contexts. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Civil Society Elites
editor
Johansson, Håkan and Meeuwisse, Anna
pages
51 - 73
publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN
978-3-031-40149-7
978-3-031-40150-3
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-40150-3_3
project
Civil society elites? Comparing elite composition, reproduction, integration and contestation in European civil societies
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
95eef6a3-945e-4b75-9fca-aa5638a31bf0
date added to LUP
2024-01-08 09:57:05
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:16:06
@inbook{95eef6a3-945e-4b75-9fca-aa5638a31bf0,
  abstract     = {{This chapter explores the composition of civil society elites and to what extent this differs from the general population, what we call the ‘civil society elite-masses gap’. While the civil society elites are, from a normative point of view, expected to be representative of the general population in terms of their social composition and attitudes, professionalisation and elitisation of civil society might lead to exclusive patterns of social composition of the top-level leadership strata of civil society organisations. This chapter presents an analysis of novel comparative survey data targeting the top-level leaders of the most resource-rich civil society organisations in five European contexts. The results show that there are striking similarities in terms of attitudes among civil society elites across different civil society regimes that are distinct from general populations. The civil society elite-masses gap in terms of sociodemographic backgrounds is also evident, but the pattern varies across contexts.}},
  author       = {{Lee, Jayeon and Scaramuzzino, Roberto}},
  booktitle    = {{Civil Society Elites}},
  editor       = {{Johansson, Håkan and Meeuwisse, Anna}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-031-40149-7}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{51--73}},
  publisher    = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
  title        = {{Mirroring the Masses? A Cross-National Comparison of Civil Society Elite Composition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40150-3_3}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-031-40150-3_3}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}