Organizing democracy in Eastern Germany : interest groups in post-Communist society / Stephen Padgett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Padgett, Stephen, 1951- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pressure groups--Germany (East).

Pressure groups.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 200 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The emergence of interest group politics is one of the decisive factors in democratic transformation in post-communist society. Stephen Padgett argues that evidence from eastern Germany suggests that market transition produces rather open and fluid societies, in which group interests and identities are tenuous. Lacking a supportive social infrastructure, interest groups operate on 'entrepreneurial' lines, a form of associational activity which falls far short of pluralist ideals. With its accelerated transition to a market economy, eastern Germany provides a 'fast-forward' study of an 'advanced post-communist society' which enables us to anticipate the social structures and issues shaping interest-group politics in the newly-democratizing states of east-central Europe. Examining a number of different interest groups, and comparing a number of countries across east-central Europe, this book may also offer a vision of the future of interest-group politics in the West.

Contents:

1. The emergence of civil society

2. Socio-economic foundations

3. Organization

4. Participation and the logic of collective action

5. Group dynamics

6. Organized interests, the state and public policy.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-192) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-11717-8

0-511-00399-4

1-280-42059-6

0-511-17201-X

0-511-14983-2

0-511-30986-4

0-511-49205-7

0-511-04808-4

OCLC:

437072976