Action collective et changement politique en Allemagne de l'Est. Le «tournant» de la RDA (1989-1990)

Abstract

Collective action and political change in east Germany The 1989-1990 east German « turning point» The turning point in East Germany in 1989-1990 represents, as all the transformations that affected Eastern Europe, a case of political rupture which does not easily fit into the framework of political change analysis. Developmentalist theories, dominating the study of these « revolutions » but handicapped by the lack of an analytical model of revolutionary action, show their explanatory weakness in the East German field. An approach combining the problematics of « democratic transition » and « resource mobilization », based on an interactionist method and a theory of collective action, can be used for a renewed and deeper understanding of the socio-political processes and the conflict dynamics at the heart of that change. On that basis, three major factors are outlined : the role of the mobilization of civil society and of the opening of opportunities in the birth and the emergence of the crisis, that of the interactions between elite strategies and popular actors in the rupture dynamic, and finally, the cultural dimension of the East Germans' commitment in the conflict.