摘要：Advocacy NGOs in Croatia often emphasize their nonpartisan identity, meaningthat they do not publicly associate with political parties or declare theirendorsement of electoral candidates. While such NGOs’ behavior could beexplained based on overall negative public perception of political parties, aswell as funding conditions imposed by NGOs’ donors, this article argues thatthe continuous nonpartisan identity of advocacy NGOs is further reaffirmedby a specific civil society discourse. Drawing on the analysis of in-depth interviewswith senior members of nine Croatian NGOs, active in areas of humanrights, the rule of law, and education, three relevant themes of civil societydiscourse reaffirming NGOs’ nonpartisanship are outlined: (1) idea of civilsociety as an answer to malfunctioning state, (2) NGOs’ legitimation basedon autonomy and expertise, and (3) perception of political parties as an inherentlylimiting organizational form.
关键词：NGOs; Civil Society; Political Parties; Nonpartisanship; Activism in Post-socialist Europe
