Processes of Economic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe

Before we can even discuss democratic consolidation, at least three minimal conditions must be fulfilled, according to Linz and Stepan (1996). Beside those consolidated democracies should also fulfill several other conditions that have in scientific analyses not attracted such high attention than three minimal conditions. Among other conditions Linz and Stepan specifically stress the importance of economic consolidation. The proposed paper is going to analyze the processes of democratic consolidation in the Central and Eastern Europe from the beginning of 1990s, when democratic transition began to take place, to most recent period, when consequences of global economic crisis hit the region. It is clearly evident from various democratic consolidation measurements that most former socialist countries have reached level of consolidated democracies; authors are testing the thesis that one of the reasons for that was also successful economic consolidation, which is in recent period suffering under heavy pressure of global economic crisis. The consequences of that can already be seen in various democratic consolidation measurements, like Nations in Transit or Human Development Index (HDI), where most CEE countries are regressing in last few years.