ABSTRACT
It has been the aim of this volume to address one major gap in the current debate about associations’ role in and for democracy: to put the associative cure into context. Too often, particular lines of thought, particular theoretical traditions and evidence from particular settings have been used to formulate rather general and universal claims. Therefore, it was the shared belief of all contributors to this book that context matters. The authors of this volume examined context in three different guises: the macro-context of the political system (Part I), the meso-context of the associative world (Part II), and the micro-context of social life (Part III). What started as a commonly-held belief, found clear support as the book progressed. In fact (with maybe the exception of one single chapter), all authors came up with strong evidence for the relevance of contextual conditions.
