Civil society and the pandemic - Civil society leaders’ perception in a comparative perspective

This paper comparatively analyzes civil society leaders’ perception of the pandemic’s impact on the civil society sector. The focus is on the leaders of the most resourceful and well-established civil society organizations (CSOs) active at national level in Italy and in the UK, and at the EU-level. The analysis is based on survey data with answers from more than 400 civil society leaders. The paper aims to answer the following questions: How does CSO-leaders’ perception of the impact of the Covid19-pandemic on civil society differ between Italy, the UK and the EU-level? What kinds of impact on civil society do the leaders perceive in each context? What other factors at individual and organizational level explain leaders’ perception? The civil society sector in most European countries is arguably under pressure to cater for the needs of communities hit by the pandemic and raising awareness on vulnerable groups’ situation. Decreasing funding opportunities and physical distancing has also posed serious challenges for CSOs’ activities and governance. Civil society leaders at national and EU-level are an important part of the political elite contributing to policy-making and public opinion and playing a crucial role in the European democratic societies, not least by representing the civil society sector towards the state and EU-institutions respectively. The paper allows us to understand the impact of the Covid19-pandemic on the civil society sector in different contexts through the lens of its most influential leaders. Italy and the UK are among the worst hit countries in Europe by the Covid19-crisis, both in terms of the extent to which the populations have undergone periods of lock-down and in terms of the number of Covid19-related deaths in relation to the size of the population. Despite these similarities, we expect that the perception of the pandemic’s impact on civil society among the CSO-leaders to differ between the two countries, due to differences in the state-civil society relations and the expected role of CSOs and their leaders in Italy and UK. Being the UK-civil society sector more professionalized and more dependent on external funding we expect these leaders to perceive a stronger impact of the pandemic on civil society, compared to the Italian leaders. The more heterogeneous composition of the leaders representing EU-based CSOs, due to different countries of origin and residence, makes us expect their perception of the pandemic’s impact to be more dispersed. In addition to these contextual factors, we explore some other relevant factors at individual level (e.g. age, gender, organizational role, perceived status and influence) and at organizational level (e.g. policy area and organizational resources). In particular, we expect that the leaders’ position and resources s/he has access to, to be important explanatory factors. The analysis will be based on an ongoing survey study about civil society leaders and leadership, and in particular questions about the impact of the pandemic on civil society. The respondents are Chairs, vice-chairs, CEOs and deputy CEOs of resourceful civil society organizations that are identified systematically in each context using the same set of indicators.