ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the assumption or hypothesis that the specific mixture of social capital formation and conflict structures contributes positively to democracy in western Germany. Social integration and social conflict can be regarded as two sides of one and the same coin in any society. It is argued that the conflict structures in Federal Germany, being highly institutionalized, contribute to the stability and positive performance of democracy. Democracy is much younger in Germany than bureaucratic organization, yet the latter remains the dominant form of organization of interests. If one takes into account the neutrality statements of interest groups in their organizational constitutions and the comments of their leaders in public, one of the surprising characteristics of the organization of social participation and the intermediary system in Germany is that there are quite strong coalitions between interest groups and political parties. Floating interest coalitions might be more flexible than institutionalized division of labor.
