Varieties of Transition: the East European and East German Experience.

Although this book is presented as a self-contained volume, it is in

fact a collection of essays written by the author (and some with a co-author)

since the late 1980s. Most have previously been published in English and/or

German. There are two exceptions for any language

English. As the title suggests, these are ruminations on the experience with the

transitions in Eastern Europe, in this case by a German political scientist.

But the accent is without a doubt on the transformation of the former

German Democratic Republic (GDR) and its consequences for German

unification.

The volume contains nine chapters ranging over a wide range of

issues. Offe starts off with a discussion of the shared features and

shortcomings of both state-socialist and democratic-capitalist societies. His

method is reminiscent of dialectics, with all of its drawbacks, but also the

wide range

of outlets it affords, at times maddeningly so. Then he discusses the GDR

experience. He contends that the country's raison d'etre as a nation was

tenuous, confined almost completely to economics and the wall, and hence bound

to fail on both counts since the only force behind the GDR's transition was

the aspiration of people toward economic prosperity. From this he argues

that the principal force underneath the unification fire is nationalism as a

way of papering over the increasingly shrill discourse on income

redistribution. He is rather pessimistic about this being quality cement to hold

together a new, well-functioning German state. He clearly would have preferred

a new constitution rather than the minimal modification of the "Basic Law"

that was in fact enacted.

In the following chapter he ponders whether a capitalist economy can

be brought about by democratic means and the troubles with democratic

theory, given the three overwhelming challenges in the eastern

countries -- the territorial issues of physical and psychological borders,

replacing the

monoparty system with pluralistic democracy, and setting up an economic

and property order together with the orderly political management of

pressing production and distributional problems.

Chapter 4 is devoted to ethnic politics in the transitions considered in

general, though one must strain his paradigms to make them applicable to

most transition economies (TEs) other than some of the successor States of

the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Yet he maintains that the "`ethnification' of

the politics of transition is the outcome of powerful ... causal forces that

manifest themselves through rational strategic individuals operative in

post-Communist societies ... and that it is exceedingly difficult to design

universalist institutional or constitutional arrangements that would pave the

way for the peaceful of coexistence of ethnic groups within" the TEs. This

sounds ambitious but apparently means little more than that countries with

substantial minorities try to galvanize around the wishes of the majority,

however canvassed, and find it all but impossible to integrate the minorities,

even if they wanted to. Why this should be so different in the TEs, Offe

attributes to the peculiar kind of nationalism there as distinct from the way

"nations" were forged earlier in western Europe. He views ethnic nationalism

as making conflict resolution all but impossible except through the "logic of

rational political nihilism," that is, by creating a fait accompli and letting

force decide. Is this pessimism really warranted for most TEs?

Chapter 5 is devoted to the dilemmas of righting actual or perceived

wrongs under state socialism through disqualification, retribution, and

restitution, though the latter is the topic of the following chapter. Offe makes

a strong case as regards the insuperable obstacles in trying to identify who was

wronged under the old regime and more in attempting to design ways and

means of righting the wrongs, even if expediency rather than philosophy and

morals were the guiding forces. His motive is that "being a `victim' is not a

self-evident and easily recognized fact, but a thoroughly political construct".

He elaborates (together with Frank Bonker) on this theme in

Chapter 6 with reference to the morality of restitution, although he uses the

term in a somewhat odd manner (p. 108). Not surprisingly, he finds few

justifications for restitution other than political expediency, and it is the

latter that

determines the array of knotty questions encountered on the slippery path of

restitution in view of "all kinds of arbitrary interests, privileges and

resentments", rather than high morals, that steer the process.

In the following two chapters the author returns to the GDR theme,

first to identify the special path of transformation in the GDR and then to

contrast the "economic hardware" with "institutional software" in the

post-war and post-1989 transitions to democracy in the FRG and GDR,

respectively. The monistic economic justification for the GDR resurfaces here

with even greater force. But Offe is now prepared to consider the "imperial" way

in which FRG politicians and the civil service, trade unions, and

industrialists lorded it over the, admittedly feeble, GDR reform leadership,

thus almost certainly squashing whatever incipient means for a more modulated

unification process could have been mustered (but that is denied in Chapter

2!). Next Offe examines the paradox of the postwar "miraculous" recovery

of the FRG in spite of considerable odds and of the "failed post-GDR miracle"

in spite of all the advantages enjoyed. He attributes this to the fact that

institutions (in the broad sense) were imposed upon the GDR without the latter's

leadership having had any say in them; and these were hardly suited to the

conditions in the country.

Finally, Offe considers what remains for the "left" after the "west's

victory" by pursuing the importance of socialism, and even of state

socialism, for the modification of capitalism and the virtual disappearance of

true leftism in most western societies. He predicts that raw capitalism in the

TEs will in due course necessitate again "modifications," just like those in

western countries since the late 19th century. Even so, he argues that the

western welfare state is being eroded rapidly precisely because the

state-socialist

challenge has vanished. No doubt it has. But the slowdown in economic growth

and substantial demographic shifts toward the elderly do not even enter Offe's

equation.

Perhaps an economist should not comment on the substance of what

is essentially a collection of philosophical, sociological, and

political-science precepts and insights. But in following TE developments, one

can confine oneself to strict economic affairs only at one's own peril. That

said, I found this collection of essays by Offe both highly stimulating and very

disturbing. There are all too many reasons for this impression as I wended my

way through the several essays. I can cite only some. Clearly, Offe is much

more familiar with German realities than with those of the "true" TEs. It

would have been interesting had he confined his commentary chiefly to

German or GDR matters. Also, some essays attempt to present a general theory,

such as on nationalism and ethnicity, while discussing transition phenomena.

None is fully developed, and at least this reader got lost several times

between the theoretical generality and its applicability to TEs. That gets

aggravated only by the loose mode of discourse that the author favors. like in

some of his dialectical wanderings, he likes to set up straw men only to shoot

them down several pages down the essay, and then chiefly in a conditional

mode. Some of the statements are flatly contradictory (e.g., on the strategic

role of TEs on pp. 168 and 202). Where he stands on many of the issues is

seemingly clear at one point only to be cast in doubt a bit down the essay or

in another one. Although the author freely comments, often disparagingly,

about economic affairs, his analyses could benefit from some brushing up.

Surely there must be more at issue in transformation than "price reform ...

and property reform (privatization)"; and price and property reform

certainly do not suffice to establish "a complete capitalist system of

control". I found it particularly irritating to see him confound

"privatization" with "property" and to treat the latter as an economic

category!

Apart from the appearance of the book, rather than it having been

squarely presented as a collection of essays, I signal several shortcomings in

presentation and typography. There is repetition and overlap among the

essays. This would have been unavoidable if the book had indeed been

presented as a simple reprint of essays, which this one is not. Now it is simply

irritating to read virtually verbatim the same statements (compare pp.

112-13 with pp. 118-19 in the same essay! or elsewhere in collection). Though

he makes an admirable attempt to preserve diacriticals, the effort is

lackadaisical at best, and in some cases rather embarrassing (such as the

Romanian's). Facts and figures are confounded (e.g., Tienanmen Square is placed

in July 1989 p. 20 but correctly on 4 June 1989 on p. 135; the 1989 events in

Yugoslavia p. 65 presumably refer to the 1988 abolition of the autonomous

regions and Milosev's assent to supervising the implementation of Greater

Serbian ambitions), and it is disappointing that the editor did not catch at

least the contradictory statements. There is some heavily Germanic English

at some points ("brother countries" is more readily translated as "fraternal

countries"); CMEA on p. 12 is mistranslated. Some Russian words are

transliterated German style, but with the accents on the sc for shch missing!.

Jadwiga Staniszkis is referred to, albeit consistently, as Staniskis!

In short, although I have reservations about the book, some of the

ideas worked out, especially with respect to the GDR and German affairs

more generally, on which Offe speaks with authority, deserve to be wider

known. Selective background reading is recommended.