Eastern European Politics - Essay Example

 There were significant differences, for example, about the abruptness or completeness of the change among the elites, ranging from the purge of the old elites in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) to the sliding-scale, power-sharing arrangements in many other post-communist societies (Robert, 1985). As in Southern Europe and Latin America, the rupture with the old regime transferred authority only with certain de facto limitations to the new elites. Whereas in the former areas, the army and both private and foreign big business often continued to wield powerful influence, in Eastern Europe, it was more often the bureaucracy and large, state-owned firms and farms.

In Russia, the entire military-industrial complex at first survived the meltdown of communist control. The new governments began to make inroads into the realms of state-owned and cooperative enterprises whose managers had somehow inherited command from the defunct state planning commissions at the centre of their command economies. In many cases, this left the economy half in and half out of the range of authority of the new democratic governments (David, & Bruszt, 1998). There is no need to go into the complexities of the transfer in each country, except to stress the paramount role of particular elites -- political or non-political -- along with the rebellious masses in the unravelling of the old and the consolidation of the new regimes.

The masses effectively challenged the authority of even the last hard-line dictatorship.  Crucial to the final collapse of the old regimes were also the defeat of the repressive apparatus at home -- especially the secret police and other repressive forces such as the workers' combat groups in large factories -- and the end of the outside military threat, both of Soviet power to reformist regimes like that of Alexander Dubcek and of the Western military counterpressure that had for so long been the alibi of Soviet pressure on the satellites.

  But the democratic faith continues to command majorities throughout the northern tier and even in Romania and Bulgaria, though not reliably yet in Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine. This gives us the reason for optimism in the democratic future of Eastern Europe.