This book examines the problems and issues facing formerly communist states as they seek to develop a new democratic political order and a market economy. Studies of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia provide detailed empirical data concerning constitution making, the shaping of democratic institutions, marketization of the economy, and social policy. This new research is then linked to innovative theoretical material to offer a unique assessment of the difficulties of creating a new political order in the region.

The authors of this book have developed a different approach to the analysis of the transitions of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia to democracy and a market economy. They integrate interdisciplinary theoretical work with elaborate empirical data on some of the most challenging events of the 20th century. Three groups of phenomena and their causal interconnection are explored: the material legacies, constraints, habits and cognitive frameworks inherited from the past; the erratic configuration of new actors, and new spaces for action; and a new institutional order under...

At a time when so many cracks have emerged within the imagined community of 'the West', this important new book, by one of the leading social scientists in Europe, examines the intellectual history of comparing Europe and the United States. Claus Offe considers the perspectives adopted by three of Europe's greatest social scientists - Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno - in their comparative writings on Europe. While traveling, studying and working in the US, all three constantly looked back to their European origins, trying to decipher from their American experience what...

At a time when so many cracks have emerged within the imagined community of 'the West', this important new book, by one of the leading social scientists in Europe, examines the intellectual history of comparing Europe and the United States. Claus Offe considers the perspectives adopted by three of Europe's greatest social scientists - Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno - in their comparative writings on Europe. While traveling, studying and working in the US, all three constantly looked back to their European origins, trying to decipher from their American experience what...

In recent years the countries of eastern Europe have been undergoing a process of rapid social and political transformation. This process has brought with it common problems experienced on different levels: economic crisis, growing social insecurity and injustice, ethnic conflicts and civil strife. In addition, post-communist societies have encountered political, legal and social difficulties in coming to term with their own past.

In this book, Claus Offe provides a lucid and insightful account of this complex process of transformation. In a wide-ranging discussion he analyses...

In recent years the countries of eastern Europe have been undergoing a process of rapid social and political transformation. This process has brought with it common problems experienced on different levels: economic crisis, growing social insecurity and injustice, ethnic conflicts and civil strife. In addition, post-communist societies have encountered political, legal and social difficulties in coming to term with their own past.

In this book, Claus Offe provides a lucid and insightful account of this complex process of transformation. In a wide-ranging discussion he analyses...

This volume addresses the problem of how modern societies politically cohere and poses one of the most fundamental questions of contemporary political analysis: how can legitimate authority coexist with effective governing capacity? In addressing this question, Offe draws on a wide variety of material in both political theory and empirical sociology.


The book is divided into four parts. In the first of these, Offe explores general questions concerning the nature and stability of modern societies and critically examines contemporary approaches to political theory. In the...

Der Band verdeutlicht Umbruche der Transformationsphase in der politischen Theorie. In einigen Bereichen, etwa der Modernisierungs-, der Demokratietheorie oder der Theorie des Systemwechsels, ist der Einfluss konkreter Ereignisse wie der von 1989, betrachtlich. Das gilt auch fur neuere Entwicklungen der internationalen Politik. In anderen Bereichen, wie den Theorien des Feminismus, der neuen sozialen Bewegungen, der Theorien von citizenchip und Legitimationstheorien scheint der Zusammenhang schwacher zu sein, hier wirkte eher der Niedergang des Marxismus in den 80er Jahren als der...

Nutzenstiftende Tatigkeiten finden auch in modernen Gesellschaften keineswegs nur dort statt, wo erwerbswirtschaftlich gearbeitet und Geldeinkommen verdient wird. Zwischen Erwerbsarbeit und Haushalt hat sich eine Vielzahl von selbstorganisierten sozialen Netzen entwickelt, in denen ohne Bezahlung ein uberhaushaltlicher Tausch von Hilfe und Diensten stattfindet. In diesem Band wird ein Uberblick uber den Erkenntnisstand zur Eigenarbeit, Haushaltsproduktion und zu informellen Hilfen gegeben, ausserdem werden solche Netzwerke auf ihre sozialstrukturellen Voraussetzungen und ihre...