Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tashev, B

Titel

BALKAN OUTCASTS NO LONGER

Ist Teil von

• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 1997-01, Vol.89 (29), p.19-19

Erscheinungsjahr

1997

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• FOLLOWING THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL IN 1989, EAST EUROPEAN STATES WERE EXPECTED TO TAKE THEIR LONG-DENIED PLACE IN THE CIVILIZED AND DEMOCRATIC WESTERN WORLD. HOWEVER, SOVIET DOMINATION HAS KEPT THEM UNDERDEVELOPED, UNDEMOCRATIC, AND GENERALLY UN-EUROPEAN. THE FIRST FREE ELECTIONS BROUGHT TO POWER ANTICOMMUNIST POLITICAL FORMATIONS EAGER TO RECLAIM THEIR COUNTRIES' "EUROPENESS" AND TO EMBARK ON RADICAL REFORM. BUT SOON OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATIONS GAVE WAY TO ETHNIC STRIFE, CIVIL APATHY, POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. THIS ARTICLE OUTLINES THE POST-COLD-WAR STATUS OF THE BALKANS, CONCLUDING THAT ROMANIA AND BULGARIA HAVE POTENTIAL TO BECOME GENUINE DEMOCRACIES.