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ABSTRACT
Portugal and the Russian Federation share some aspects of traditional culture and similar experiences in modern history, but they also exhibit significant differences that determine specific modes of civil society’s development.
Results of a comparative and diachronic analysis show that the major differences between the two countries reside in civil society’s openness and composition. Organized civil society is not very distinct in relative size when comparing Portugal and the Russian Federation, but it is globally more autonomous, expressive, trusted and institutionalized in Portugal than in the Russian Federation and among the factors that contribute to this condition are an earlier and revolutionary transition to democracy, a larger middle class, a greater prevalence of the value of interdependence, and a regime that endorses bigger public social expenditure in Portugal, all this within the framework of the European Union that has a longer history of social demand and institutional incentives for civil society. Despite those unequal conditions, civil society faces similar current challenges in both countries, mainly with the outsourcing of the public provision of social services.
Notes
* This text includes results from the project Civil Engagement in Social Work: Developing Global Models project funded by FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES, Marie Curie Actions – International Research Staff Exchange Scheme.
2 Since we have no data on the Crimea that would permit a retrospective analysis on the following variables, most of the analysis does not include the Crimea.
3 Tatyana Maleva, Director of the Institute of Social Policy.
4 On a scale from 1 = totally disagree, to 4 = totally agree.
5 Inclusiveness is defined as the concern over the welfare of non-in-group members; universalism is measured by the importance of treating every person equally, the importance of listening to people that are different, and the belief that people should care for nature.
6 On a scale from 0 = no trust, to 10 = complete trust.
7 The consequences of the financial crisis and the economic adjustment programme (2011–2014) in Portugal are evident in these figures. Unemployment doubled between 2005 and 2013. Debt increased by 40.0 per cent in 2011–2014, while its growth between 2005 and 2008 was only 7.5 per cent. The adjustment programme is associated with an unprecedented acceleration of debt when its main objective was to control it. Total public social protection expenditure in Portugal grew by 1.38 per cent in 2011/2013 (0.69 per cent a year, on average) while it grew by 3.86 per cent (0.48 per cent a year) in 2000–2008. Social protection expenditure accelerated during the adjustment programme despite severe cuts that were made in public expenses, once again contrary to the objectives of the programme.
8 The Human Development Index (HDI) is a synthetic measure of development achievements in health, education and standard of living. The HDI was created to enable going beyond a classification of economic growth alone. It is used to inform national policy priorities and choices, and to compare development between countries (UNDP-HDR).
9 The IHDI combines a country’s average achievements in health, education and income with the degree of inequality in the distribution of these achievements among the population.
10 An extensive review of the history of civil society in Portugal is available in Franco (Citation2015) and Quintão (Citation2011).
11 Although Portugal shows higher public expenditure in health and education, the coverage may be bigger in Russia considering a greater proportion of physicians and larger gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education in this country (UNDP-HDR, Citation2016).