Gute und schlechte Informalitat? Informelle Politik in West und Ost

In: Osteuropa, Band 55, Heft 10, S. 5-15

Abstract

Informal processes play a key role in politics. The bandwidth reaches from work in constitutionally unforeseen advisory commissions & corruption to mafia-like practices. Informality occurs wherever formal institutions reveal a deficit in performance. Whether informal practices are functional or dysfunctional for boosting the formal institutions' efficiency is controversial & depends on the measure applied. Often, the measure is liberal democracy based on rule of law. Informal practices in Central & Eastern Europe have their own character. They feed on the legacy of centralized socialism & the side-effects of the transformation process. The concept of legitimacy, so far neglected, offers a means of analyzing & assessing informal politics in the East. Adapted from the source document.