The period after the collapse of communism

The first 200 words of this essay...

In the period after the collapse of communism the nations of Central and Eastern Europe, unshackled from the alien constraints of the Soviet system, were thrust into a new and unfamiliar role. They were expected and compelled to dissolve then reconstruct their political systems and, as a result, plot a new destiny for their nations. "The unexpected liberation from an established authoritarian regime created a political vacuum. It challenged national politicians with a crucial question: How to fill the vacuum?" (Rose, 1996, p.68). With all eyes of the world watching, the citizens and leaders of Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic had to formulate an alternative system of government and carve out the course for their future. The overwhelming demand of the people was for an open, accessible democratic arrangement- to make a clean break with their tyrannical past. The heads of the reform movement and the surviving, flexible political leaders deliberated as to which form of democracy they would establish. Looking to the West for archetypes of known successful political systems, the choice was between the presidential democracy as found in the United States, and the parliamentary system as found in Western Europe.