The position of interest groups in Eastern European democracies: maturing servicemen or Trojan horses?

This chapter examines the democracy-supporting potential of interest organizations in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. The fundamental assumption is that democratic civil society is a crucial arena to foster democratic values and attitudes among the members of democratizing polities (Gibson 2001; Pridham 2000). As such, this chapter argues that as long as civil society organizations are not internally democratic, they cannot serve as ‘schools of democracy’ for their members (de Tocqueville 1835/1998; Rohrschneider 1999:11). This school of democracy argument arises out of the notion that ‘involvement in non-political associations evokes certain civic attitudes [among the citizenry] which are crucial for the health of democracy at large’ (Roßteutscher 2002:514). Hence interest organizations, which act as schools of democracy, develop a healthy associational life, promote modern types of citizenship and engage in democracy building as well as creating channels for the articulation of interests and opportunities for participation (Diamond 1994:7-11).