Oswojona rewolucja. Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w procesie demokratyzacji

The happenings at the turn of the last decade have naturally increased interest in present-day events. Professor Anna Wolff-Powęska has succeeded in combining passion of a historian with, the temperament of a political scientist. Her new book is the fruit of her long-standing interest in European societies' transition from dictatorship to democracy. She presents the democratisation of the state and society in East-Central Europe and compares this difficult process with the experiences of the ex-fascist countries after World War II and of south-European states in the Seventies. The reader will find it easier to understand the complex character, principles and specific characteristics of the democratic transformations taking place in Poland, the former German Democratic Republic, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary if he compares them with the experiences gained earlier by other countries.

The book is written in the form of an essay. The author does not pass judgements on the facts she describes. She comments on them as an eye witness and a researcher. By referring to many historical examples she wants to persuade the reader that the errors committed in the course of democratisation and difficulties and contradictions connected whit this process are not peculiar to Poland but are characteristic of all activities aimed at overcoming totalitarian structures. Revolutions leave no time for learning. This is why the countries of East-Central Europe are doing their best to overcome their recent past and build a democratic future. Anna Wolff-Powęska has undertaken to portray the Central European societies' endeavours to shape a new democratic political culture. She also shows the historical conditions, individual features and European context of the democratisation process.