The Beginning of Democracy in Eastern European Countries from the 1990s to the 2010s and Its Contemporary Crisis: Poland and the Czech Republic as Examples

Abstract

In 1989, Poland and the Czech Republic almost simultaneously got rid of the socialist regime and gradually embarked on the road to Western democracy. They persisted in the global economic recession in 2008 and achieved economic leaps; however, under the impact of the refugee wave since 2011, conflicts that had been squeezed for decades broke out. For a time, populist forces were rampant in Eastern European countries. Faced with these populist forces, many people lost hope in democracy. This paper aims to present the beginning of the democratization process in Eastern European countries from the 1980s to the 1990s and the reasons for the rampant populist forces in Eastern Europe. The author believes that Eastern European society experienced triple changes in social structure, economic model, and political system at the end of the Cold War. These triple changes exacerbated the inner insecurity of the Eastern European people, and the insecurity planted the seeds of populism. The Soviet Unions long-term control in Eastern Europe led to peoples resistance to the Soviet Union and even the Russian nation. Since the second decade of the 21st century, with the arrival of the refugee waves and many other events in the international situation, this resistance against Russia rose to xenophobia, popularized by populist thoughts, used, and expanded by power. Finally, by analyzing the current status of populist parties in Eastern Europe, the author believes that these populist parties are trying to establish a contemporary nation-state with authoritarian solid rule in the 21st century.