ABSTRACT
The transition to democracy in terms of the holding of free parliamentary elections contested by a range of independent parties was only the first step in the move away from communist rule in Central Europe. The tensions became evident and exerted a significant influence on the institutional development of the post-communist systems. While disagreement continued about the procedures for filling the office of president and the appropriate sequence for the early stages of the transition to democracy, accommodation was soon reached about the electoral law that should be adopted and the advisability of arranging a general election with all due dispatch. Apart from the difference in post-communist electoral systems within East-Central Europe, it was unlikely that a reasonably clear-cut parliamentary majority could in any case have been achieved in Poland. The chapter also deals with the post-communist systems in Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
