The Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe

The Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe

The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in the

late eighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its scope. The

specifics of communism's demise varied among nations, but similarities in

both the causes and the effects of these revolutions were quite similar.

As well, all of the nations involved shared the common goals of

implementing democratic systems of government and moving to market

economies. In each of these nations, the communist regimes in power were

forced to transfer that power to radically different institutions than they

were accustomed to. Democracy had been spreading throughout the world for

the preceding two decades, but with a very important difference. While

previous political transitions had seen similar circumstances, the actual

events in question had generally occurred individually. In Europe, on the

other hand, the shift from communism was taking place in a different

context altogether. The peoples involved were not looking to affect a

narrow set of policy reforms; indeed, what was at stake was a hyper-radical

shift from the long-held communist ideology to a western blueprint for

governmental and economic policy development. The problem inherent in this

type of monumental change is that, according to Ulrich K. Preuss, "In

almost all the East and Central European countries, the collapse of

authoritarian communist rule has released national, ethnic, religious and

cultural conflicts which can not be solved by purely economic policies"

(47). While tremendous changes are evident in both the governmental and

economic arenas in Europe, these changes cannot be assumed to always be

"mutually reinforcing" (Preuss 47). Generally it has been theorized that

the most successful manner of addressing these many difficulties is the

drafting of a constitution. But what is clear is the unsatisfactory

ability of a constitution to remedy the problems of nationalism and ethnic

differences. Preuss notes that when the constitutional state gained favor

in North America, it was founded on the principle of the unitary state; it

was not designed to address the lack of national identity which is found

throughout Europe - and which is counter to the concept of the

constitutional state (48). "Measured in terms of socioeconomic

modernization," writes Helga A. Welsh, "Central and Eastern European

countries had reached a level that was considered conducive to the

emergence of pluralistic policies" (19). It seemed that the sole reason

the downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power of

the Soviet Union. According to theories of modernization, the higher the