In many emerging and authoritarian countries, civil society organizations that focus on political or sensitive policy issues are being cracked down upon, while service-oriented ones are given a relatively greater ability to operate. What might the consequence of this be for democratic practice given the important role civic organizations play in this process? We examine this question by considering whether the absence of confidence in a country's governing institutions is related to membership in service-rather than governance-focused civic organizations, and how such membership is associated with elite-challenging, political activities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. We find that individuals who have no confidence in state institutions are less likely to seek membership in governance-focused civic organizations, but not necessarily in service-focused ones. At the same time, membership in both types of civic organizations is associated with participation in political activities, while beliefs that a country is run democratically decreases it. This suggests that a variety of civic organizational types, even those without an explicit governance-focus, contingent on perceptions of democratic governance and other covariates held constant, enhance democratic practice.

中文翻译：

---

重新审视民间组织在哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦的作用：信心、成员资格和民主实践

在许多新兴和专制国家，专注于政治或敏感政策问题的民间社会组织正在受到打击，而服务型组织则被赋予相对更大的运作能力。鉴于民间组织在这一过程中发挥的重要作用，这对民主实践可能产生什么后果？我们通过考虑对一个国家的治理机构缺乏信心是否与服务而非以治理为重点的公民组织的成员有关，以及这种成员如何与哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦。我们发现，对国家机构没有信心的个人不太可能寻求成为以治理为重点的公民组织的成员，但不一定以服务为中心。同时，两种类型的公民组织的成员资格都与政治活动的参与有关，而认为一个国家是以民主方式运作的信念会降低这种参与。这表明，各种公民组织类型，即使是那些没有明确治理重点的公民组织类型，取决于对民主治理和其他协变量保持不变的看法，也能促进民主实践。