The emergence of interest group politics in post-communist society is one of the decisive issues of democratic transformation. Interest groups occupy a key position in pluralist democracy, aggregating private interests, representing those interests in the public policy process and thereby mediating between society and the state. The free association of individuals in groups formed to promote their common interests is thus an important tributary of the democratic process. Their emergence in the new states of east/central Europe is widely recognized as one of the main preconditions of democratic consolidation. Research suggests, however, that, whilst interest groups have proliferated across the region, they bear little resemblance to the pluralist model. Their predominant characteristics are continuity with the old regime, organizational instability and fragmentation, elite domination and mass passivity, and an outsider status in the public policy process. This book attempts to explain the hesitant emergence of associational activity in post-communist society, and to predict the sort of associational order we might expect to see in the future.

It approaches the question from the perspective of group theory. The theoretical core of the book is provided by the various strands of pluralist theory which identify the source of associational activity in particular patterns of social differentiation and stratification arising out of economic relations of modern society.