Civic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Visegrad countries

The aim of this paper is to analyse the empirical research conducted on civic activism during the COVID-19 pandemic and attempt to interpret the findings in terms of comparative analysis in the Visegrad countries. The research is based on survey data collected in the Visegrad Group on civic society. The data thus gathered helped to illustrate the actual state of civic activism during the COVID-19 pandemic in individual countries, when the introduced restrictions and constraints changed the world of social activism. The SARS CoV-2 virus pandemic, which began in 2019, has significantly affected societies and human activity worldwide, throwing the functioning of societies off balance through dynamic and unpredictable social transformations. Observing the rapidly changing social reality, citizens had to trust governments as they sought to control the pandemic at the expense of limiting rights and freedoms. In the social space, lifestyles changed drastically in terms of switching to remote work and study, limiting social contacts, restricting movement, prescribing appropriate behaviour or keeping a safe distance, and banning assemblies and social protests. The impact of social restrictions during the pandemic (a social unpredictable phenomenon) on civic activity, and thus on civil societies, has significantly altered the previous actions and functioning of societies, including citizens, as well as NGOs. Public reactions to the restrictions were very visible in the unpredictable course of the pandemic. The influence of the pandemic on the citizens of the societies concerned had many global consequences, both short-term and long-term, such as lack of social dialogue, lack of public participation, dissatisfaction with governments, social demonstrations. How civil societies and civic activism functioned during the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely relevant, as it affected every citizen by reshaping private, social, political life and place of residence. We also have no guarantee that another epidemic will not break out in a few years or so. Therefore, we should learn from the experience of the pandemic for the future – how to make the right choice of tools for public participation during a pandemic/emergency, what methods to use to activate citizens in social life, and how to avoid frustration with restrictions on individual rights and freedoms introduced by state authorities. Each country individually took its own path of legal, medical and social action to limit the pandemic and its impact. Some EU countries implemented some actions, such as the purchase of vaccines. For the quantitative research, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary were selected.