The revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the subsequent transformation of those countries occurred at much the same time as the project of European integration entered into a new phase with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. On the one side, the countries of the Warsaw Pact underwent a transition to capitalism and to democracy, as well as in many cases a transition to national autonomy, while on the other side in Western Europe the EU was emharking on a major project of enhanced integration (see Offe 1997). Alongside these processes, other changes took place all of which had implications for the making of political community: German unification in 1991, which led to a shift in the balance of power in Europe towards Germany; the emergence of a global multi-polar world; changes resulting in major technological developments in information technology; the steady rise of the new centres of economic and political power, most notably China and India and later Brazil; the growing significance of global civil society; the end of apartheid in South Africa by 1994.