ABSTRACT

With a foreword by Seymour Lipset, Hoover Institution and George Mason University, USAThe Fall examines one of the twentieth century's great historical puzzles: why did the communist-led regimes in Eastern Europe collapse so quickly and why was the process of collapse so different from country to country? This major study explains why the impetus for change in Poland and Hungary came from the regimes themselves, while in Czechoslovakia and East Germany it was mass movements which led to the downfall of the regimes.

part I|64 pages

Theory

chapter 1|32 pages

The Collapse

chapter 2|30 pages

The Main Framework

part II|100 pages

The Underlying Causes of the Collapse

chapter 3|28 pages

The Economic Situation

chapter 4|32 pages

Implementing Economic Reforms

part III|222 pages

Differences in the Process of Collapse

chapter 6|40 pages

Regime Policy Before 1988

chapter 8|38 pages

Social Movements Before 1988

chapter 9|36 pages

Institutional Compromise

chapter 10|60 pages

Non-Violent Revolutions

chapter 11|26 pages

Summary of the Model

chapter |10 pages

Epilogue The Rightwing Shift After 1989