ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the process of integrating the economy of the former East Germany into the (West) German economy. It examines the instrumentalities of transition to a market economy. The book also looks at five systems: the USSR, China, Cuba, Yugoslavia, and Poland. It proposes the role of the media in relation to the de-communization of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and the dramatic changes which have taken place in the Soviet Union. The book also examines the prerequisites for the building of democratic systems in Eastern Europe, and assesses these states' prospects of success. It offers competing models, which locate the explanatory variable in different places and account for the unfolding of change in different ways. The book focuses on the cultural component of political change, and argues that religious impulses frequently play a role in producing political transformation.
