THE ESSENCE OF POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN-EUROPE

Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, every one of these Central European countries has undergone changes. These changes, at varying rates of development, have contributed to the removal of the last vestiges of the second world war. A study of the rate of change is less rewarding than an examination of the nature and extent of the changes. Certain common denominators in the position of these countries may be noted : Abolition of the dominant, monopolistic role of the communist party, the collapse of the political regime in socialist countries being an inevitable concomitant of this process. The reorganization of governmental institutions, or by what process is a state administrative and hierarchical structure, having no answerability to society, transformed into a parliamentary democracy ? Elections : the Spring of 1990 was the period of free elections and the constitution of parliamentary assemblies in the majority of Eastern European countries. At the same time, one should distinguish between free elections and democratic elections. The appearance of juridical and ideological premises for the construction and reconstruction of civil society. Political and constitutional changes are vulnerable and easily reversed if not underpinned by reform of the economic system.