ABSTRACT

Military regimes withdrew from the levels of authority making room for civilian led governments. Post-communist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and, more recently, in Russia under President Boris Yeltsin, are pursuing privatization and democratization. The trend toward democracy and free market economies has also received considerable prodding from the West and international financial institutions. Democracy and democratization, though related, are not synonymous. Military disengagement and democratization refer to a process that may or may not lead to to the establishment and consolidation of civilian rule and democracy. The immediate difficulties of democratizing regimes is also compounded by the inability or unwillingness of the West, and particularly the US, to provide much needed economic and technical assistance. Extremist movements of the left or the right seem to still possess some muscle and certainly the willingness to present a threat to democratizing regimes.