Civil Society Watch

Other than the time between the two World Wars, democracy has been a remarkable success after World War II. From 1918 through 1939, after the progression of democratic tendencies in the beginning of the 1920s, most countries in Europe gradually returned to autocratic, even fascist regimes. Today it is a fact that democracy is deeply rooted in Western European countries and all communist regimes in the eastern half of Europe have failed. Some countries, in that region, though, are on their way to democracy, and in other countries democratic governments are trying their first steps, which turn out to be hopeful, yet difficult. I deliberately call it the eastern half of Europe--not Eastern Europe--because very often Central European countries are called Eastern European. Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Hungarians, however, consider themselves Central European, not Eastern European.