Weak democracies under pressure, 1918 and 1989 in comparison
2018, 2018, No. 4
University of Vienna, East European Area Studies
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Abstract
The article is concerned with the recent crisis of representative democracy. It analyses especially the features and conditions of the democratic decay in East-Central Europe. The method of the study consists mainly in a thorough interpretation of different data from the field of social, political and economic transitions during and after the 1990s. Additionally, the article examines the fate of democratic regimes in the interwar period and the causes of its weakness. The population’s expectations towards political transformations was a major driving factor of politics in both periods of time in East-Central Europe. The article tries to answer the question how to deal successfully with the democracy crises in the region. The stabilisation of democratic polities would need both a strong social policy on the basis of an economic catch up with the West and a careful handling of the fears of “globalization”.
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