The year 1989 saw the demise of communism in Europe. This impacted the world politics to a great extent. Prior to 1989 there had always been much speculation concerning the future of the communist states, but it had always been misleading. Through all these predictions however, two stood out.
In Jürg Steiner's book – European Democracies – we are given the view of Jeane Kirkpatrick, a political scientist and former US ambassador to the United Nations. Her thoughts were that ‘no real internal changes' would take place and that; the history of this century provides no grounds for expecting that radical totalitarian regimes will transform themselves.
[...] The breaking down of communism may have been a rapid process; but the rebuilding left both at home and throughout Europe is something that these countries will have to live with, in my opinion for a number of years hence. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, J.F., Hopes and Shadows (Duke University Press, 1994) Garton Ash, T., We The People: the revolution of 89 (Granta Books Glenny, M., The Rebirth of History (Penguin, 1990) Gowland, D et al., The European Mosaic (Longman, 1995) Kuran, T., Out Of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989', Journal of World Politics, vol (1991) Smith, G., The Post-Soviet States (Arnold Publishers, 1999) Steiner, J., European Democracies (Longman, 1995) Stokes, G., The walls came tumbling down (Oxford University Press, 1993) Steiner, J., European Democracies (Longman, 1995) p Steiner, J., European Democracies (Longman, 1995) p Steiner, J., European Democracies (Longman, [...]
[...] We will now look at the consequences that the break down of communism brought to European politics as a whole. 1994 most of the Eastern European states moved into their fifth year of revolution'[11]. As J.F Brown puts it, five years after the events of 1989, things have steadily kept moving forward; forward at least from where they were. It is strongly evident that, however quick the foundations of reformation were to set in, it would take time for Eastern European states to adjust both economically and politically to their new regimes. [...]
[...] The real reason for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe was the great revolution of autumn 1989. Without the momentous events that took place in the Soviet Union, state communism would not have dissolved as easily as it did. It may have succumbed in time, but; the real trigger for what happened in 1989 was the decision of Mikhail Gorbachev to let the Central and Eastern European countries go their own way[3] And why did he do this? Firstly it was Gorbachev's belief that state communism was in need of dramatic reform. [...]
[...] The leaders, with such fixed ideals wanted to make sure that this first step towards democracy worked; the long held tenet that socialism was superior to capitalism and that soviet style socialism had resolved problems such as social inequality, urban decay and corruption, supposedly endemic only to capitalism, was debunked and those problems were publicly acknowledged.[6] This openness or glanost that was apparently required set out to involve society in the reformation of communism rather than merely announcing it. Ironically, this new and brave step taken by the government backfired. [...]
[...] Huge economic difficulties led to reform of the communist regimes in Romania. It was to be the end of the Ceaucescu era and a joyous and prosperous time for many Romanians. At the time, Romania was going through sixth winter of energy-saving' and economy depended on guaranteed cheap energy'[8]. The future looked seriously bleak for Romania and even without any noticeable input from the Soviet Union, reformations looked to be on the horizon. In Romania the act of reform was so rapid that even Gorbachev's regime looked slow when the two were compared. [...]
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