The Democratic Process and the Market [antikvár]

Introduction Mihály Simái The issues which are dealt with in this book have raised extensive interest and world-wide attention both in the academic community and in international political affairs, actively involving government, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs. Dozens of books, hundreds of pamphlets have been written on the topics discussed here. Human history has witnessed different systemic transitions, but never before, at least during the period of modern history, have the challenges for these particular countries and simultaneously for the international community become so clear, due to the complex interactions between the past and the present, between the political, economic, and social processes, cultural values and institutions, national and international factors and institutions, as in the former socialist countries in Europe. The global information revolution, which has highlighted the transition process and its consequences, has added another dimension to the uniqueness of the changes. This volume is a specific contribution to the global dialogue about the transition. It is as a part of the United Nations University's programme on the global democratic process and comprises one of the "regional" dimensions of it. The chapters focus on the historically more or less unparalleled changes in the former socialist countries, where democratization has not resulted from an organic process of 1