ABSTRACT
The alternative concept of mass democracy executing a mythic "general will" is rejected and treated as remote and dangerous. However, it is worth remembering that these two models of democracy are also linked to the different patterns through which community/society constituted itself as a political entity. This chapter discusses a few such patterns that have appeared during the transformation in Eastern Europe and analyzes how these patterns could prevent the development of representative democracy based on the rule of law. It explains the type of state that is replacing the old party-state by referring to the category of Standesstaat, as well as the concept of "exclusionary corporatism." The cumulation of nearly unsolvable economic problems decreases the credit-worthiness of Eastern Europe. All such attitudes existing in the West have the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Eastern European societies the base for the pattern of socialization typical of civil society will emerge only after the dissolution of state ownership.
