ABSTRACT
The optimists predict that orientations infiltrate the regime and allow it to reform itself, while providing a social base for peaceful transition to a new order. The drive to turn out the old ruling group helps explain why it is generally impossible for communist regimes simply to expand the political arena and find some acceptable formula for sharing power with opposition forces. The remarkable changes in the communist world since 1989 raised certain fundamental issues about the reformability of communist political systems. The more communist systems attempted to reform and “soften” their political structures, the more they aggravated the systemic crisis they intended to alleviate. An adequate model of the transition from communist rule therefore must accurately describe trends in the social environment and provide better insight into the complex relationship between social and political change. A regime-centered account can illuminate the consequences of a communist system’s fusion of economic and political power.
