New economic and political systems are being constructed from the ashes of the old structures. As once feared authoritarian regimes crumbled, a mood of euphoria engulfed the region. Democratic transition is a controlled transformation from a more illiberal state to a more liberal one. In the context of developments in Eastern Europe, the change in state is from a Soviet-type command economy to a form of market-based economic system. Although the transition from communist to post-communist societies varies from country to country, some general patterns have emerged. In post-communist Eastern Europe, elements of continuity are interacting with new components in a complex and multi-level relationship. The opening up of the political system revealed tensions and conflicts that had been restrained in the more centralised and rigid communist regimes. The violent civil conflicts that have erupted in Yugoslavia since the late 1980s have often been attributed to ‘ancient hatreds’ and have been depicted in psychological terms.