Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought Series

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 second part he examines new developments facing the state and assesses new departures in state theory. In the third part, problems and policy prescriptions which have emerged in connection with developments in Western welfare states are addressed. In the final part, Offe seeks to illuminate through comparative analysis many of the new questions facing political sociology in the light of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The result is a highly original account of developments in contemporary society both in the West and in the East.

Modernity and the State will be welcomed by students and scholars in social and political theory, political sociology and East European studies.

Varieties of Transition

by Claus Offe

Published 24 October 1996

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.

Disorganized Capitalism

by Claus Offe

Published 19 September 1985

Should the advanced Western democracies, contrary to their prevailing self-image as 'planned' and 'managed', be seen as highly disorganized systems of social power and political authority? If so, what are the symptoms, consequences and possible remedies of these disorganizing tendencies?

In this newly translated work, almost all of which has until now been unavailable to English-speaking readers, Claus Offe seeks to provide answers to these questions. Moving beyond the boundaries of both Marxism and other forms of political sociology, he gives particular emphasis to the growth of serious cleavages within the work force (and between the employed and the unemployed), the importance of the 'informal' sector, the severe difficulties faced by trade unions in coping with the present economic crisis, the vulnerability of 'neo-corporatist' mechanisms, and the failures of state policy-making based on either majority rule or bureaucratic administration. In critically examining these and other pressing problems of advanced capitalist democracies, Claus Offe also calls into question such widely-held assumptions of contemporary social science as the fairness and neutrality of liberal democratic mechanisms of participation and representation, the centrality of both the category of work and the irreconcilable division / antagonism between Labour and Capital, and the feasibility and desirability of 'full employment'.

Claus Offe is one of the most important social scientists writing today and the author of many well-known and influential essays. This new work makes his ideas available to English-speaking readers in a systematic and comprehensive way. It is bound to become a standard point of reference for discussions of the present state and future prospects of the industrially advanced countries in modern times.