ABSTRACT
The communists who took power in East Central Europe between 1944 and 1948 were swept out of power between June 1989 (when the Independent Trade Union Solidarity won the parliamentary elections in Poland) and October 1991 (Bulgaria's first pluralist elections). In some quarters, both in the region and in the West, there were wild expectations of rapid progress toward liberal democracy, rising prosperity for all classes of people, and a new religious freedom. These expectations were unrealistic and, at best, only partially fulfilled in certain countries and largely dashed in others. The Western European model was attractive but could not be replicated. For example, democracy in Great Britain unfolded over a period of almost 240 years, starting with the Glorious Revolution of 1689; continuing with the Great Reform Act of 1832, which extended the vote to about 20% of adult men; and culminating in the Equal Franchise Act of 1928, which extended the vote to all women over the age of 21, i.e., on the same basis as enjoyed by men at that time. By contrast, the states emerging from communist rule in East Central Europe wanted to construct new systems much more quickly. They passed new constitutions, repealed and replaced communist law, and, without exception, at first, hoped for eventual inclusion in the European Union (EU) and, among at least some prominent political figures, also the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Multiethnic Yugoslavia and binational Czechoslovakia broke up, while East Germany merged with West Germany in 1990, with the result that where there had been eight states in the region prior to 1989, there were now 14. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia were admitted to the EU in 2004, Romania and Bulgaria followed in 2007, and Croatia finally joined in 2013. Where NATO membership is concerned, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were the first to be admitted, joining the alliance in 1999, followed by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004. Albania and Croatia were brought into the alliance in 2009, with Montenegro following in 2017. Macedonia was admitted into NATO in 2020 after it agreed, in 2018, to change its name to North Macedonia. As of early 2024, the only states in the region that are not members of either organization are Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the latter divided into two autonomous “entities” since 1995.
