ABSTRACT
The economic and social crisis of the 1980s triggered a process of political pluralization and democratization, which led to the collapse of the communist regime in late 1989 and the first free general elections in forty years on March 25, 1990. In the course of 1988, however, the tide began to turn. The deepening economic crisis, the accelerating process of democratization, the opening up of public life, and--last but not least--the full-time live television coverage of their sessions, turned the parliament into a lively arena of real political struggle. In communist Eastern Europe, the alternating periods of democratization and repression have tended to be directly correlated with decreases and increases in East-West tension. Since the end of World War II, Europe's main dividing line has run between the western and the eastern portions of the continent, namely, between the democratic countries of the West and the undemocratic, communist countries of the East.
