Abstract
In the two decades that have followed the 1989–1991 collapse of communism in the former Soviet bloc and the June 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the former communist states have traversed diverse paths away from communist rule. Some former Soviet satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe - amongst them Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, and the three Baltic states previously part of the Soviet Union - have made relatively successful transitions to consolidated democracies and market economies. A small number of former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine and Georgia, continue to struggle in their transformation process and face uncertain futures. The former Soviet republics in Central Asia and Belarus have degenerated into autocratic regimes that have successfully preserved the power of the previous ruling elites despite adopting ostensibly democratic, but heavily manipulated, electoral institutions.
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Keywords
- Class Structure
- Comparative International Development
- Transition School
- Democratic Transition
- Authoritarian Rule
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© 2012 Christer Pursiainen
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Pursiainen, C. (2012). Introduction. In: Pursiainen, C. (eds) At the Crossroads of Post-Communist Modernisation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284136_1
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