Advocacy and civil society organizations

an analysis of the organizations of the Pact for Democracy network

Abstract

Currently, we observe a movement towards the broadening of political representation, no longer limited by sanctions, accountability and public authorizations, as in the electoral political representation typical of liberal democracies, but rather seeking to influence and pressure the public agenda through networks and coalitions of political incidence (advocacy). To understand the emergence of the use of advocacy strategies by civil society organizations, the Pact for Democracy was analyzed as a network advocacy initiative. The data were obtained through the websites of 77 organizations from the advocacy coalition Pact for Democracy that adopt, among other collective action repertoires, advocacy to promote their cause on the public agenda. Along with the characteristics of the organizations, we sought to analyze the values they defend with the objective of presenting a general analytical framework of the advocacy causes defended by these organizations and their approaches. To this end, the Iramuteq software word cloud was used. The conclusion is that the political advocacy carried out by these organizations presents itself as a re-signification and expansion of political action and for the defense of human rights.