ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 analyses the documents of the EU’s civil society funding policy (especially the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights) and looks for liberal and neo-liberal rationalities in these documents. It also uses interviews with EU representatives to strengthen its claim that the EU’s civil society funding is based on neo-liberal and liberal rationalities. The first part of the chapter shows that the EU programs constitute civil society in liberal ways – namely as a bearer of economic, social and legal rights as well as a check on the state. The second part of the chapter demonstrates that the EU programs also constitute civil society according to neo-liberal rationalities, including having to be empowered, being social service providers, participants in decision-making and economic managers who have to use technologies of visibility and performance. Overall, this chapter argues that the EU constitutes civil society in liberal and neo-liberal ways that are ambiguous and contradictory – for example, when the EU understands civil society as a check on the state but also as a participant in political decision-making.
