Violence and democracy in Eastern Europe

Abstract

This discussion between violence and democracy in Eastern Europe excludes the regions of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. In the interwar period, ethnic animosities were aggravated by the demands of treaties imposing the protection of minority rights. After World War II, however, tensions were eased by the reduction of the minority element in states throughout Eastern Europe. In addition, the horrors of World War II and the violence of the Communist seizure of power caused a massive and radical transformation of popular attitude toward both violence and democacy (at least in some East European countries), thus assuring that the majority of post‐Communist transitions were conducted in a relatively peaceful manner.