Civic participation barriers within non-profit organizations: regional measurement

Increasing the level of civic participation is an important task of the state social policy now. The activity of non-profit organizations (hereafter - NPO), which are created by active social groups for solving socially significant problems, is one of the forms of civic participation. The research is aimed at diagnosing the existence and performance of civic participation barriers in the NPO’s activity at the regional level. In order to achieve the goal two field sociological studies have been conducted on the territory of the Vologda Oblast: the large-scale polling of population (N = 1900) and the expert survey of the heads and representatives of non-profit organizations (N = 35). The author defines the non-profit sector’s development trends in the Northwestern Federal District’s regions and in the Vologda Oblast based on the description and interpretation of statistical data. The results have shown the signs of crisis state in the sphere concerning the reduction in the number of organizations during 2014-2018. However, the positive moments regarding the increase in the number of provided services have been identified. The researcher reveals the institutional and social civic participation barriers in the NPO’s activity in the region. Institutional barriers are considered through the state’s financial support measures. It has been established that in spite of the active policy on creating conditions for the sector’s development, there are constraints in budgetary allocations. It results in weakening organizations’ facilities and infrastructure support. Social barriers include poor public awareness regarding the NPO’s work, low confidence level, and, hence, relatively low rates of citizens’ real participation in NPOs. The theoretical significance of the conducted research lies in inducing further research and expanding knowledge on the issue under consideration. The practical significance is that studying the barriers of population’s involvement into the NPO’s activity will allow to outline the prospects in developing the marked form of civic participation. The research results will be useful to the government authorities responsible for creating conditions for the implementation and support of public initiatives at the federal, regional and municipal levels.