The Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe :: Government Essays

The Downfall of communism in Eastern and telephone exchange Europe The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in thelate eighties was curious for both its rapidity and its scope. Thespecifics of communisms demise varied among nations, but similarities inboth the causes and the effect of these revolutions were quite similar. As well, all of the nations involved shared the common goals ofimplementing democratic systems of government and moving to marketeconomies. In each of these nations, the communist regimes in indicator wereforced to transfer that power to radically different institutions than theywere accustomed to. republic had been spreading throughout the world forthe preceding two decades, but with a very important difference. periodprevious political transitions had seen similar circumstances, the actualevents in question had generally occurred individually. In Europe, on theother hand, the shift from communism was winning place in a differe ntcontext altogether. The peoples involved were non looking to affect anarrow set of policy reforms indeed, what was at postal service was a hyper-radicalshift from the long-held communist ideology to a western outline forgovernmental and economic policy development. The problem inherent in thistype of massive change is that, according to Ulrich K. Preuss, Inal well-nigh all the East and Central European countries, the collapse ofauthoritarian communist rule has released national, ethnic, religious andcultural conflicts which scum bag not be solved by purely economic policies(47). While tremendous changes are evident in both the governmental andeconomic arenas in Europe, these changes cannot be assumed to always bemutually reinforcing (Preuss 47). Generally it has been theorized thatthe most successful manner of addressing these many difficulties is thedrafting of a constitution. But what is clear is the unsatisfyingability of a constitution to remedy the problems of nati onalism and ethnicdifferences. Preuss notes that when the thoroughgoing nation gained favorin North America, it was reared on the principle of the unitary state itwas not designed to address the lack of national identity which is foundthroughout Europe - and which is counter to the concept of theconstitutional state (48). Measured in terms of socioeconomicmodernization, writes Helga A. Welsh, Central and Eastern Europeancountries had reached a direct that was considered conducive to theemergence of pluralistic policies (19). It seemed that the sole reasonthe downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power ofthe Soviet Union. According to theories of modernization, the higher theThe Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe Government EssaysThe Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in thelate eighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its scope. Thespecifics of communisms demise varied among nations, but similarities inboth the causes and the effects of these revolutions were quite similar. As well, all of the nations involved shared the common goals ofimplementing democratic systems of government and moving to marketeconomies. In each of these nations, the communist regimes in power wereforced to transfer that power to radically different institutions than theywere accustomed to. Democracy had been spreading throughout the world forthe preceding two decades, but with a very important difference. Whileprevious political transitions had seen similar circumstances, the actualevents in question had generally occurred individually. In Europe, on theother hand, the shift from communism was taking place in a differentcontext altogether. The peoples involved were not looking to affect anarrow set of policy reforms indeed, what was at stake was a hyper-radicalshift from the long-held communist ideology to a western blueprint forgovernmental a nd economic policy development. The problem inherent in thistype of monumental change is that, according to Ulrich K. Preuss, Inalmost all the East and Central European countries, the collapse ofauthoritarian communist rule has released national, ethnic, religious andcultural conflicts which can not be solved by purely economic policies(47). While tremendous changes are evident in both the governmental andeconomic arenas in Europe, these changes cannot be assumed to always bemutually reinforcing (Preuss 47). Generally it has been theorized thatthe most successful manner of addressing these many difficulties is thedrafting of a constitution. But what is clear is the unsatisfactoryability of a constitution to remedy the problems of nationalism and ethnicdifferences. Preuss notes that when the constitutional state gained favorin North America, it was founded on the principle of the unitary state itwas not designed to address the lack of national identity which is foundthroughout E urope - and which is counter to the concept of theconstitutional state (48). Measured in terms of socioeconomicmodernization, writes Helga A. Welsh, Central and Eastern Europeancountries had reached a level that was considered conducive to theemergence of pluralistic policies (19). It seemed that the sole reasonthe downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power ofthe Soviet Union. According to theories of modernization, the higher the