ABSTRACT
The case study of Pavol Jozef Safarik University in the Slovak Republic is particularly instructive for readers in Western Europe and North America because it illustrates part of an effort to preserve the better parts of the system that existed prior to 1989. The Prague Spring of 1968 may have taught Czechs and Slovaks that radical reforms may be short-lived, and may be reversed with military force; or the strong economic base of the country may have meant that the worst excesses of free market competition were not seen; or the persistence of an earlier capitalist culture may have been a resource for Czechs and Slovaks which was not available in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. This chapter argues that on occasion reforms have been advanced simply because they are different, without the consequences having been fully thought through.
