ABSTRACT
The collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe is perceived by the West as the greatest triumph of liberal democracy. Capitalism and the Western type of democracy are now recognized universally as the best form of social organization. Thus, in the first year after the end of communism, it seemed to be only a question of time before the majority of previously socialist states would become organized after the manner of their Western counterparts. But the introduction of liberal democracy to Eastern Europe only clarified that one cannot just graft the specific political organization of one society onto another. Although people in Eastern Europe favoured the idea of democracy, they identified with old national myths and discovered new hatreds that prevented democracy from really functioning.
