This article argues that current democracy promotion strategies relying on rights-claiming advocacy NGOs are falling short of their democratization goals, as authoritarian regimes are closing the space through restrictions on the NGOs that attempt to carry them out. In response, we suggest a reexamination of earlier approaches to involving civil society in democratization efforts by shifting the focus back on service-providing civil society organizations that have largely become side-lined in democracy-building agendas. Specifically, service providers tend to be more capable of functioning “under the radar” thus contributing to democracy in both direct and indirect ways, and thus escaping closing space restrictions. The key concerns about their independence from the state, as well as under what conditions the state may be less successful in coopting the independent service-providers, however, remain unresolved and warrant future research.

中文翻译：

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公民社会与民主化：提供服务的组织在封闭的公民空间中的作用

本文认为，当前依赖倡导权利的非政府组织的民主促进策略未能实现其民主化目标，因为专制政权正在通过限制试图实施这些非政府组织的非政府组织来关闭空间。作为回应，我们建议重新审视早期让公民社会参与民主化努力的方法，方法是将重点重新放在提供服务的公民社会组织上，这些组织在民主建设议程中基本上被边缘化了。具体而言，服务提供商往往更有能力“在雷达下”运作，从而以直接和间接的方式为民主做出贡献，从而摆脱封闭空间的限制。对他们独立于国家的主要担忧，