Abstract
Democratization is a process that may endure for a long time and that cannot be followed according to a well-tested recipe or theory. It includes, therefore, many caveats, vagaries, and a strong element of unpredictability for any political system that finds itself in the transition from a non-democratic past to some form of democratic future.
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Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968);
Ralph M. Goldman, “The Nominating Process: Factionalism as a Force for Democratization,” in Gary D. Wekkin et al., Building Democracy in One-Party Systems: Theoretical Problems and Cross-Nation Experiences (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993), p. 47–69.
Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz & Alfred W. Payne, Politics of Ideocracy (New York: SUNY Press, 1995).
Judith Pataki, “Hungarians Dissatisfied with Political Changes,” in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Report (6 November 1992): p. 66–67.
Listed as “situational preconditions” in Sabrina P. Ramet, “Balkan Pluralism and Its Enemies,” in Orbis (fall 1992): p. 547–564. For other sources of Ramet’s criteria of democracy, see: Aristotle’s Politics; Alvin Rabushka & Kenneth Shepsle, Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Instability (Columbia, Ohio: Merrill, 1992);
Guglielmo Ferrero, The Principles of Power (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1942);
Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies; Crane Brinton, Anatomy of a Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1964);
Valerie Bunce, “Rising Above the Past: The Struggle for Liberal Democracy in Eastern Europe,” in Sabrina P. Ramet, ed., Adaptation and Transformation in Communist and Post-Communist Systems (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).
Free elections are one of several “institutional preconditions” according to Ramet, “Balkan Pluralism and Its Enemies.” For other definitions of democracy see: Wekkin et al., Building Democracy in One-Party Systems, p. 9–10; Georg Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), p. 13.
For data on the election outcome, see: Barnabas Racz, “Political Pluralization in Hungary: The 1990 Elections,” in Soviet Studies, vol. XLIII, no. 1 (1991): p. 107–136. On the 1989 electoral law, see: Istvan Kukorelli, “The Birth, Testing, and Results of the 1989 Hungarian Election Law,” p. 137–156.
Barnabas Racz, “The Hungarian Parliament’s Rise and Challenges,” in RFE/RL Research Report (14 February 1992): p. 23.
“Gypsies Suffering in Hungary’s Shift,” in New York Times (7 November 1993); “Boross: Ethnic Conflict Not Behind Gypsy Deaths,” Nepszabadsag (15 September 1992), as translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) (29 September 1992); U.S. State Department, Human Rights Report 1992 (Washington, D.C.: state Department, 1993).
Ibid. For results and analyses of the 1994 elections, see: Edith Oltay, “Former Communists Win First Round of Hungarian Elections,” in RFE/RL Research Report (27 May 1994);
Edith Oltay, “The Former Communists’ Election Victory in Hungary,” in RFE/RL Research Report (24 June 1994).
See: Anne Applebaum, “The Fall and Rise of the Communists,” in Foreign Affairs, vol. 73, no. 6 (November–December 1994): p. 7–13.
Louisa Vinton, “‘Outsider’ Parties and the Political Process in Poland,” in RFE/RL Research Report, vol. 3, no. 3 (21 January 1994): p. 14.
Ibid., p. 8; Janusz L. Mucha, “Democratization and Cultural Minorities: The Polish Case of the 1980s–1990s,” in East European Quarterly, vol. XXV, no. 4 (January 1992): p. 472.
Millard, Frances, “The Polish Parliamentary Elections of October 1991,” in Soviet Studies, vol. 44, no. 5 (September 1992): p. 837–855.
Barry Newman, “As Election Day Nears, Governing Politicians in Poland Wonder Where They Went Wrong,” in Wall Street Journal (16 September 1993).
Steven Silber, “Polish Premier Finally Opts for Privatization,” in Christian Science Monitor (spring 1994).
Aleksandr Kuranov, “Eastern Europe’s Pink Tide,” in Nezavisimaya Gazeta (July 1994), translated in World Press Review (August 1994).
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, “Human Rights and Democratization in Poland,” p. 9–10; Kuranov, “Eastern Europe’s Pink Tide,” p. 3; John Pomfret, “Poland’s Ex-Communists Say West Aided Win,” in Washington Post (26 September 1993).
Marius Janicki, “Two Sides of the Mirror; Parties, Party Leaders, Voters,” Polityka (12 October 1996), as translated in FBIS Daily Report (8 November 1996): p. 2–4. If these preliminary surveys prove correct, Solidarity may once again emerge as the winner and form a coalition government with other “Rightist” parties, whereas the Left Democratic Alliance and the Polish Peasant Party could be pushed into the opposition.
Ben Slay, as paraphrased in Paula B. Smith, “The Polish Transition: Economic Success, Political Failure?” in East European Studies (Woodrow Wilson Center) (September–October 1995): p. 2.
Ruth Walker, “Poland’s Anticommunists Aim to Rise Again in Presidential Bid,” in Christian Science Monitor (3 November 1995);
Ruth Walker, “Wary of Ex-Communists, Poles Boost Walesa in Vote,” in Christian Science Monitor (7 November 1995); “Walesa by a Neck?” in The Economist (11 November 1995).
Marshall Ingwerson and Peter Ford, “Ex-Communists Retake the Helm,” in Christian Science Monitor (21 November 1995).
Gregory Pitt, “Fresh Face, Same Agenda,” in Christian Science Monitor (21 November 1995);
George Moffett, “A Cold-War Reality Check: Didn’t Communism Die?” in Christian Science Monitor (6 December 1995).
An example was the government’s support for the Lety Archives and protection of the Lety camp, a site from which thousands of Roma were deported to Auschwitz during World War II; H. Kamm, “Havel Calls the Gypsies ‘Litmus Test’,” in New York Times (10 December 1993). Concerning the Roma in the Czech Republic see: Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, “Human Rights and Democratization in the Czech Republic,” p. 18–21.
For similar arguments, see: David B. Ottoway, “Czechs Defy Trend in Rebuffing Old Left,” in International Herald Tribune (28–29 May 1994).
T. J. Pempel, ed. Uncommon Democracies: The One-Party Dominant Regimes (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990).
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© 1999 Marco Rimanelli
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Kernen, B. (1999). Out from the Cold: Peaceful Democratization in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In: Rimanelli, M. (eds) Comparative Democratization and Peaceful Change in Single-Party-Dominant Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312292676_9
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