ABSTRACT
A fundamental contradiction in the democratization of communications in East-Central Europe exists between the obvious tendencies of political and economic elites toward privatization and commercialization as a means of power and profit maximizing and the neglected development of public services as one of the cornerstones of more democratic communication. The lack of money and demand, a weak economy, and the general economic decline caused by structural reforms make this contradiction almost unsolvable, although both East European governments and Western observers largely believe that there exists a "magic key": liberalization and privatization. The process of privatization conducted by the state may be considered a kind of social engineering that is compatible neither with the legal state nor with civil society. The current global economic restructuring implies important and complex changes in production, consumption, and management that cannot be reduced to privatization of the means of production.
