Saturday, May 2, 2020

Communism Downfall Essay Example For Students

Communism Downfall Essay The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in the lateeighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its scope. The specifics ofcommunisms demise varied among nations, but similarities in both the causes andthe effects of these revolutions were quite similar. As well, all of the nationsinvolved shared the common goals of implementing democratic systems ofgovernment and moving to market economies. In each of these nations, thecommunist regimes in power were forced to transfer that power to radicallydifferent institutions than they were accustomed to. Democracy had beenspreading throughout the world for the preceding two decades, but with a veryimportant difference. While previous political transitions had seen similarcircumstances, the actual events in question had generally occurredindividually. In Europe, on the other hand, the shift from communism was takingplace in a different context altogether. The peoples involved were not lookingto affect a narrow set of p olicy reforms; indeed, what was at stake was ahyper-radical shift from the long-held communist ideology to a western blueprintfor governmental and economic policy development. The problem inherent in thistype of monumental change is that, according to Ulrich K. Preuss, Inalmost all the East and Central European countries, the collapse ofauthoritarian communist rule has released national, ethnic, religious andcultural conflicts which can not be solved by purely economic policies(47). While tremendous changes are evident in both the governmental and economicarenas in Europe, these changes cannot be assumed to always be mutuallyreinforcing (Preuss 47). Generally it has been theorized that the mostsuccessful manner of addressing these many difficulties is the drafting of aconstitution. But what is clear is the unsatisfactory ability of a constitutionto remedy the problems of nationalism and ethnic differences. Preuss notes thatwhen the constitutional state gained favor in North America, it was founded onthe principle of the unitary state; it was not designed to address the lack ofnational identity which is found throughout Europe and which is counter to theconcept of the constitutional state (48). Measured in terms ofsocioeconomic modernization, writes Helga A. Welsh, Central andEastern European countries had reached a level that was considered conducive tothe emergence of pluralistic policies (19). It seemed that the sole reasonthe downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power of theSoviet Union. According to theories of modernization, the higher the levels ofsocioeconomic achievement, the greater the pressure for open competition and,ultimately, democracy. As such, the nations in Eastern and Central Europe wereseen as anomalies in socioeconomically highly-developed countries whereparticularly intellectual power resources have become widespread (Welsh19). Due to their longtime adherence to communist policies, these nations facedgreat difficu lty in making the transition to a pluralist system as well as amarket economy. According to Preuss, these problems were threefold: The genuineeconomic devastations wrought by the communist regimes, the transformation ofthe social and economic classes of the command economy into the social andeconomic lasses of a capitalist economy and, finally, the creation of aconstitutional structure for political entities that lack the undisputedintegrity of a nation state (48). With such problems as these to contend with inre- engineering their entire economic and political systems, the people of EastGermany seemed to be in a particularly enviable position. Economically, theywere poised to unite with one of the richest countries, having one of thestrongest economies, in the entire world. In the competition for foreigninvestment, such an alliance gave the late German Democratic Republic aseemingly insurmountable lead over other nations. In regards to the politicalaspects of unification, it effect ively left a Germany with no national or ethnicminorities, as well as having undisputed boundaries. As well, there was no needto create a constitution (although many of the pitfalls of constitution-building would have been easily-avoided due to the advantages Germany had),because the leaders of the GDR had joined the Federal Republic by accession and,accordingly, allowed its Basic Law to be extended over their territory. For allthe good that seemed to be imminent as a result of unification, many problemsalso arose regarding the political transformation that Germany was undergoing. King David And Jesus EssayThe former East Germans look upon this issue with contempt, because it is theWesterners who have control over the rules, as well as the enforcement of thoserules. This is merely one of a multitude of instances where this mistrustmanifests itself. There are also the issues of self-purification and collectiveamnesia. Due to the pervasive nature of the communist regimes surveillanceprograms and so forth, there is very little room for anyone to claim pure hands. While West Germans can claim that they are innocent by virtue of geography, EastGermans are never able to escape the suspicions that they may have been part ofthe machine. Government jobs are denied to those who were affiliated with theStasi, and private businesses also may deny employment to these citizens. Whileunification has occurred theoretically, in reality the Germany today is one ofde facto separate-but-equal citizenship. There is no denying that there havebeen many problems associated with the unification of East and West Germany. Thetransition from communist state to liberal democracy is a very difficult one,and there is no real way to predict how the German experience will turn out. AsPreuss writes, The transition from an authoritarian political regime andits concomitant command economy to a liberal democracy and a capitalist economyis as unprecedented as the short-term integration of two extremely differentsocieties one liberal-capitalist, one authoritarian-socialist in to onenation state (57). In other words, the unification of Germany is one ofthe most complicated and unprecedented historical events since the unificationof Germany. BibliographyBauer-Kaase, Petra. Germany in Transition: The Challenge of Coping withUnification. German Unification: Processes and Outcomes. M. Donald Hancockand Helga A. Welsh, eds. Boulder: Westview, 1994. 285-311. Gloebner, Gert-Joachim. Parties and Problems of Governance During Unification. GermanUnification: Processes and Outcomes. M. Donald Hancock and Helga A. Welsh, eds. Boulder: Westview, 1994. 139- 61. Preuss, Ulrich K. German Unification:Political and Constitutional Aspects. United Germany and the New Europe. Heinz D. Kurz, ed. Brookfield: Elgar, 1993. 47-58. Welsh, Helga A. TheCollapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the GDR: Evolution, Revolution, andDiffusion. German Unification: Processes and Outcomes. M. Donald Hancockand Helga A. Welsh, eds. Boulder: Westview, 1994. 17-34.

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