The Downfall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe
             The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe
             in the late eighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its
             scope. The specifics of communism's demise varied among nations,
             but similarities in both the causes and the effects of these
             revolutions were quite similar. As well, all of the nations
             involved shared the common goals of implementing democratic
             systems of government and moving to market economies. In each of
             these nations, the communist regimes in power were forced to
             transfer that power to radically different institutions than they
             were accustomed to. Democracy had been spreading throughout the
             world for the preceding two decades, but with a very important
             difference. While previous political transitions had seen
             similar circumstances, the actual events in question had
             generally occurred individually. In Europe, on the other hand,
             the shift from communism was taking place in a different context
             altogether. The peoples involved were not looking to affect a
             narrow set of policy reforms; indeed, what was at stake was a
             hyper-radical shift from the long-held communist ideology to a
             western blueprint for governmental and economic policy
             development. The problem inherent in this type of monumental
             change is that, according to Ulrich K. Preuss, "In almost all the
             East and Central European countries, the collapse of
             authoritarian communist rule has released national, ethnic,
             religious and cultural conflicts which can not be solved by
             purely economic policies" (47). While tremendous changes are
             evident in both the governmental and economic arenas in Europe,
             these changes cannot be assumed to always be "mutually
             reinforcing" (Preuss 47). Generally it has been theorized that
             the most successful manner of addressing these many difficulties
             is the drafting of a constitution. But what is clear...