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 This change provides the central question of the volume: Is being part of an organization or association becoming an outdated model? And do associations still have the capacity of modernizing societies or are they just outdated remnants of post-democracy?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.