The intangibles and imponderables of the transition to democracy

No reflection on the emerging new Europe can neglect the dramatic collapse of the communist system, and the fundamental transformations of social, political, economic, and ideological structures in the eastern and central parts of the continent. These events will probably go into the textbooks of history as the “Autumn of Nations 1989.” In this article I want to draw attention to the dilemmas and challenges facing those Europeans (nearly one hundred millions of them) who find themselves in the midst of this post-revolutionary transition and who are making a bid for a decent place in the European home. I will focus on the experience of Poland, but will claim a more general validity for the diagnoses and interpretations.