ABSTRACT
The quantitative dimension can be defined more easily— and the pattern established during the early post-communist years has tended to survive and strengthen. Deficient democracy thus characterizes much of the region, while democratic quality remains problematic even in the more advanced countries. Many post-communist democracies, like others in the ‘third wave’ of democracy, have therefore ‘started democratization backwards’ and failed to progress far beyond the forms of electoral democracy. The development of civil liberties is clearly reflected in the Freedom House country scores reported, and these at least are relatively well established in the leading democracies of Central Europe that are joining the European Union. The process of democratization has not always been strengthened nor the cause of democracy necessarily invariably well served by the strengthening of West European links. Democratic conditionality has been a blunt instrument that is disproportionately harsh on states less advanced on the path of economic and political development.
