In the introduction I located the source of associational activity in the issues and cleavages arising out of economic relations. Interest group configurations reflect patterns of social differentiation embedded in the underlying structure of capital ownership, and the ordering of employment relations and labour markets. For both employer and employee, the employment relationship is the source of the ‘categoric cleavage’ around which common interests form, and group formation is decisively shaped by the character of the relationship. Institutionalized employment relations and homogenous labour markets, it was argued, are the key to solidaristic forms of trade union mobilization. Employers also share common interests in labour market relations, but their interests are defined also in relation to their status as owners of capital. Business interests are thus shaped by the degree of capital concentration, the mix between national and international capital, and relations between large and small firms.

From this perspective, the attempt to identify emergent patterns of interest group activity in post-communist society should begin by examining the structures of capital ownership and employment accompanying market transition. In the early stages of transition, it has been argued, economic relations are insufficiently developed to generate the stable and clearly defined group interests and identities on which the associational order is based in group theory.