ABSTRACT
As time passes, it is becoming clearer that the transition from communism to democracy and market economy in East-Central Europe (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia) is shaped by many local factors: traditions, both old and new; the different degrees of cultural proximity to Western societies; the quality of leaders and political activists; the expectations and behavioral patterns of the masses; and the consequences, unintended as well as intended, of the first protests.
