Since its revival in the 1980s the concept of civil society has made its way as an unchallenged model for the strengthening of democracy, justice and civic participation. In the social sciences, researchers concerned with the study of democracy keep emphasizing the importance of civil society for the breakdown of authoritarian as well as for the consolidation of democratic regimes. But what about civil society in the so-called “hybrid” democracies which emerged in several states in the course of the Third Wave of democratization and belied all hopes for a quick and automatic democratic consolidation? Despite the variety of terms and conceptualizations which have come up in the last years, these new “democracies with adjectives” (Collier/Levitsky 1997) share the basic criteria of formal democracies but show significant deficits regarding political liberty, civic rights or the rule of law. Stuck in a hybrid state between the authoritarian past and democratic consolidation, this new type of democracy might challenge civil society far more than expected. The paper analyzes these specific challenges for civil society in hybrid democracies using the example of Nicaragua, a country which despite the glorious start of democratization through the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 and the quick introduction of formal democratic structures has not managed to overcome all authoritarian legacies so far. Looking at the options, functions and strategies of Nicaraguan civil society organizations vis-à-vis the state, the case study analyzes the reciprocity of a hybrid democratic context and a torn and weak civil society. Altogether, the findings show that the persistence of authoritarian practices combined with a formal democratic structure and an apathetic population typical for many hybrid democracies, make it extremely difficult for civil society organizations to keep up with the normative expectations implied in our theoretical concept of civil society.
