Varieties of Transition

Claus Offe has spent most of his career analyzing the inner workings (and
nonworkings) of Western democracies. After the upheavals of the late 1980s, however,
his attention was drawn increasingly to the East, and particularly to the
transformations occurring in the former German Democratic Republic.The nine essays
collected here, all written within the last few years, report what Offe has learned.
They explore such topics as the characteristics and shortcomings of state socialist
societies and of democratic capitalism, the role of ethnic politics in East European
transitions, issues of retribution and restitution in the transition to a democratic
society based on a private economy, and the effects the collapse of Communism have
had on Western democracies and on the Left in particular. Three essays focus on the
"special path" to capitalism followed by the former GDR, including a fascinating
comparison betewen post-1945 West Germany and post-1989 East Germany.