Sammendrag
The collapse of communism in Central and
Southeastern Europe has given rise to various
myths and debates. This article undertakes to
examine and debunk two myths and to summarise
and assess four debates. The two myths are, first,
that no one foresaw the collapse of communism
or offered any clear prediction of that eventuality
in the decade preceding 1989, and, second, that
what occurred in the region between 1989 and
1991 could not be described as a revolution since,
allegedly, it was masterminded by the communist
authorities themselves; this article refutes these
two myths. The four debates concern whether to
describe the processes of change since 1989 as a
transition or a transformation, what to count as
democratic consolidation, and what to understand
as the reasons for differences in paths of transition
(or transformation), and as reasons for differences
in the level of success with democratisation. The
article includes some comparative measures of
regional progress since 1989.
Vis fullstendig beskrivelse
