Private Groups and Public Life

This book focuses on the changing relationship between social and political involvement in Western Europe. Empirical case studies examine how new social movements interact with conventional political structures as individuals and groups experiment with new forms of political expression. The results indicate not a declining, but a changing democratic culture. 1. Introduction 2. Voluntary Associations and Democratic Politics: Participation in Britain 3. Social Reflexivity, Democracy, and New Types of Democracy in Denmark 4. Political Parties and Social Organisation in Flanders 5. Women and the Transformation of the Norwegian Voluntary Sector 6. The Rise of Protest Businesses in Britain 7. Political Capital Formation among British Party Members 8. The Corporatist Channel and Civil Society in the Netherlands 9. Associative and Political Participation in Switzerland and France 10. The Political Participation of Intermediary organisations at the Local Level 11. Organising Capacity of Societies and Modernity 12. Voluntary Associations, Social Movements, and Individual Political Behaviour in Western Europe. References, Subject Index, Name Index