ABSTRACT
Civil society forces emerge and become sufficiently strong that, when the perception of crisis takes hold within the regime and the regime splits, the more liberal side of the regime elite sees those society-based forces as appropriate partners for meaningful negotiations. Early negotiations/pacting occurs, leading to elections, which remove the old regime from power and ensure that the subsequent negotiations about the form the regime will take are dominated by civil society forces. It is those forces which overwhelmingly shape the political outcome, a stable democracy. The former ruling communist party transforms itself into a social democratic party as part of this process. There are two examples of this pattern, Poland and Hungry.
