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Modernizing Democracy brings together scholars focusing the role of associations and associating in contemporary societies. Organizations and associations have been identified as the "meso level of society" and as the "basic elements of democracy". They are important providers of welfare services and play an important role between the individual and political spheres. In recent years the environment of associations and associating has changed dramatically. Individualization, commercialization and globalization are challenging both democracy and the capability of associations to fulfill the functions attributed to them by social sciences. This change provides the central question of the volume: Is being part of an organization or association becoming an outdated model? And do associations still have the capacity of modernizing societies or are they just outdated remnants of post-democracy? The contributions to Modernizing Democracy will be organized into: Studying Association and Associating in the 21st Century, Associating in Times of Post-Democracy and Associations and the Challenge of Capitalist Development. The book will be attractive to third sector researchers as well as a broader academic community of political scientists, sociologists, economists, legal scientists and related disciplines. Matthias Freise received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Münster University, Germany where Annette Zimmer was his doctoral advisor. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Political Science and executive director of the Graduate School of Politics at the same place. Previously, he supervised a doctoral research group on "European Civil Society and Multilevel Governance" at Münster University together with Annette Zimmer. His research interests include civil society theory, third sector research, European multilevel governance and interest representation. He is co-editor of the series "European Civil Society" at Nomos Publishers. Recent publications include A Panacea for all seasons? Civil Society and Governance in Europe (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2010) and several articles on civil society organisations in public private partnerships. In addition, Matthias Freise is a teacher in the advanced training course on Nonprofit Management and Governance at Münster University. Thorsten Hallmann received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Münster University, Germany, in 2008. His dissertation dealt with the public discourse on drug policy and the "drug scene" in Münster. He is mainly working on third sector and local policy issues. From 2011 to 2013 he was a member of the WILCO research team, a EU-funded international project on welfare innovations on the local level. As a student, he joined the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project team in Münster, headed by Annette Zimmer. Later they conducted further research on local associations together. Hallmann also worked as a volunteer and board member in a local refugee relief organisation and is an active member of further civic associations.

Modernizing Democracy brings together scholars focusing the role of associations and associating in contemporary societies. Organizations and associations have been identified as the 'meso level of society' and as the 'basic elements of democracy'. They are important providers of welfare services and play an important role between the individual and political spheres. In recent years the environment of associations and associating has changed dramatically. Individualization, commercialization and globalization are challenging both democracy and the capability of associations to fulfill the functions attributed to them by social sciences. This change provides the central question of the volume: Is being part of an organization or association becoming an outdated model? And do associations still have the capacity of modernizing societies or are they just outdated remnants of post-democracy? The contributions to Modernizing Democracy are organized into Studying Associations and Associating in the 21st Century: Theoretical and methodological considerations, Associating in times of flux and Associations and the Challenge of Capitalist Development. The book will be attractive to third sector researchers as well as a broader academic community of political scientists, sociologists, economists, legal scientists and related disciplines.

NGOs spielen eine wichtige Rolle in den politischen Aushandlungsprozessen der Europäischen Union. Darin übernehmen sie vor allem drei Funktionen: (1) Sie steuern Expertise und politische Legitimität bei, (2) betreiben ein Monitoring der komplexen Regelsetzung (3) und unterstützen die Kommission bei der Überwachung der Implementierung europäischen Rechts in den Mitgliedsstaaten. Entstanden ist so ein symbiotisches Verhältnis vieler NGOs zu den Institutionen der EU, das ihnen Einflusskanäle eröffnet, aber auch Widerstand gegen politische Entscheidungen der Union unterbindet.

Politikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten zu Governance und Zivilgesellschaft in Europa lassen sich typischerweise zwei Strängen zuordnen: Zum einen Studien, die die Bemühungen der Europäischen Union, die Zivilgesellschaft als Legitimierungsressource zu nutzen, kritisch auf den Prüfstand stellen und eigene normative Lösungsvorschläge entwickeln. Zum anderen Forschungsarbeiten, die weniger die demokratietheoretische Dimension reflektieren, als vielmehr an einer präzisen Beschreibung von Steuerung und Koordination im hochkomplexen System der EU interessiert sind. Sie fokussieren auch auf die erweiterte Systemstruktur und ihre Einbindung in das weit verzweigte System der europäischen Konsenssuche, das sich beispielsweise in den zahlreichen Beratungsausschüssen widerspiegelt, aber auch durch den Mehrebenencharakter europäischen Regierens gekennzeichnet ist. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird zunächst ein Überblick über die Verwendung des Governance-Konzepts in der politikwissenschaftlichen Europaforschung gegeben und der Bezug zu Zivilgesellschaftskonzepten herausgearbeitet. Im Anschluss daran wird gezeigt, wie sich die Debatte um die Etablierung "Guter Governance" in den europäischen Institutionen entwickelt hat. Dabei wird auf Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojekts "Europäische Zivilgesellschaft und Multilevel Governance" zurückgegriffen, das von 2004 bis 2009 an der Universität Münster durchgeführt wurde. (ICI2)