Postsocialist Civil Society or Postsocialist Civil Societies? A Comparative Analysis of Regional Commonalities and Differences in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper provides a comparative analysis of postsocialist civil societies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Rather than treating “postsocialist civil society” as a singular category, the analysis highlights its heterogeneous nature by comparing five regions in CEE: the Baltic States, the Visegrád Group, Former Yugoslavia, Southeast Europe, and the Post‑Soviet States. Beginning with a critical review of the extensive scholarly literature on civil society and contentious politics in the region, the paper utilizes public data from leading global indexes – including the Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index, Nations in Transit, Bertelsmann Transformation Index, and Freedom in the World – to examine regional commonalities and differences among postsocialist civil societies. Using normative liberal-democratic indicators, the findings highlight varying levels of development in the sustainability, viability, and democratic capacity of civil societies, alongside notable differences in political participation and civil liberties across the postsocialist landscape of CEE.