ABSTRACT
The opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 ultimately paved the way for the end of Communist rule in the German Democratic Republic and the unification of both German states roughly. Before suggesting an approach that would more systematically explain the process of transition to democracy, some observations must be made about the controversy regarding the character of that change, as between "liberalization" and "democratization." Despite the fact that in the early eighties Czechoslovakia lost its lead to East Germany as the most efficient economy in Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, it succeeded rather well in maintaining a reasonable living standard for its population, thus avoiding mass discontent so characteristic of Poland and, to a much lesser degree, of Hungary. The situation within the Hungarian party was less dramatic, but in the early 1980s it became clear that the unity so carefully engineered by Janos Kadar as part of his post-1956 reconciliation campaign was falling apart.
