![]() ![]() ![]() For instance, in addition to limiting interpersonal contacts, many regimes have restricted access to information and freedom of expression, detained activists, and relied on the military to enforce COVID-19-related measures (Bethke & Wolff, 2020 CIVICUS, 2020). This is particularly so as incumbents in many regimes with democratic deficits use the pandemic to strengthen their rule, for instance by invoking draconian laws aimed at stifling civil society (Bethke & Wolff, 2020 ICNL, 2021 Smith & Cheeseman, 2020). The most common assumption is that lockdowns and other restrictive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus erode what CIVICUS ( 2021) terms as the three key “civil society rights” of association, peaceful assembly, and free expression, thereby reinforcing a preexisting global trend of shrinking civic spaces (e.g., CIVICUS, 2020, V-Dem, 2020 on long term trends, see Carothers & Brechenmacher, 2014 Dupuy et al., 2016 Poppe & Wolff, 2017). One and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions about its impact on civic space are ongoing in academic and policy circles. Third, this new trajectory of civil society activism works to sustain civic space. Second, these new opportunity structures lead to the cross-fertilization between service delivery and advocacy activism by civil society. First, legal restrictions on civil society rights intertwine with the space created by health and economic needs to create new opportunities for civil society activism. ![]() Investigating five countries with flawed democracic or competitive autocracic regimes in Southeast Asia, we propose a three-pronged mechanism of how these determinants interact in the context of COVID-19. ![]() Instead, we reconceptualize civic space by broadening its determinants to also include needs-induced space and civil society activism. We argue that the legal guarantee (or restriction) of civil society rights is not the sole factor configuring civic space. In this article we challenge the conventional wisdom that COVID-19 and related legal restrictions invariably reinforce a global trend of shrinking civic space. ![]()
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