This book explores the general theme of how people adapt to a new democratic system, concentrating on the citizens of post-communist Europe, who have lived through tremendous political and economic changes over the past two decades. It traces their life experiences and trajectories, from living in communist political and economic systems to adapting to the rapid and sweeping changes of post-communist democracy and market capitalism. In states where the Communist Party dominated for decades with its omnipresent ideology and mechanisms of social control, ordinary people developed strategies for getting by in an economy in which shortages were rampant, and in a political system in which laws and institutions rarely functioned as intended or promised. This book shows how, to what extent, and in what ways these adaptive strategies have persisted in the new post-communist era.

More specifically, this book focuses on civil society – conceived of as a crucial part of the public space between the state and the family, and embodied in voluntary organizations – and it seeks to explain why post-communist civil society is distinctively weak, characterized by low levels of organizational membership and participation by ordinary citizens. The assertion that civil society is weak throughout post-communist Europe demands evidence and explanation. A major task of this book is therefore to present a clear and detailed account of comparative levels of participation in voluntary organizations across a wide set of countries.