Please inquire in detail about the characteristics of political transformation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Behind the political transformation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the result of the operation of western countries led by the United States.

Political transformation is both theoretical and practical. The political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries is not only the recognition of the western political model in theory and policy, but also the process of approaching the operating model of the western political system in practice. Theory and policy come first, but practice lags behind.

In the early 1990s, most Central and Eastern European countries adopted new constitutions, which theoretically established the political transition goal of multi-party system and parliamentary system. First of all, all Central and Eastern European countries have changed their country names, canceling the words "socialism" and "people" in the original names.

Some countries have also changed their national flags and national emblems. Secondly, the * * * production parties in Central and Eastern European countries have abandoned the one-party system in which the * * * production party is in power alone or the multi-party cooperation system under the leadership of the * * * production party, and instead implemented the multi-party system. Third, Central and Eastern European countries have established the principle of separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers.

At the same time, Central and Eastern European countries decided to implement parliamentary system. The government is produced through consultation between the President and the Parliament, and is responsible to the Parliament, which has the right to change the Cabinet.

However, for quite some time, there is a gap between the actual operation of the new political system and its established goals, which constitutes a unique scene in the political transition period.

First, political parties are divided and combined, and there are many parties. When describing the political party system in the early stage of Poland's transformation, western scholars said: "The two main groups (Solidarity and Producers) covered up the latent divisions within their camps, and once these two powerful camps disintegrated, these divisions would grow rapidly." [1] This is generally the case in Central and Eastern European countries. Most of their main political parties were formed in the frequent separation and integration of the former ruling party and the opposition camp. Coupled with the establishment of multi-party system and multi-party elections, it stimulated the proliferation of political parties, and by the early 1990 s, there were many political parties.

Second, the electoral system is complicated and chaotic. The parliamentary election system in some Central and Eastern European countries is too complicated. For example, Hungary adopts a mixed system of proportional representation and single-seat constituency representation, which is quite complicated. Romania's first election after the upheaval had as many as 37 pages of votes. In the semi-free election in Poland 1989, voters were asked to cross out the names of the candidates they opposed, which undoubtedly caused confusion. The complicated and chaotic electoral system often confuses voters, affects their enthusiasm for participating in politics, and leads to a continuous decline in participation rate.

Third, parliament and government change frequently, and the political situation fluctuates from time to time.

The development of political transformation has given parliament unprecedented power, and its role has gone beyond the scope of being the state power organ in charge of legislation alongside the administrative and judicial organs, and has become a decisive aspect of "democratization". However, the parliament itself is not capable enough to play such an important role, which leads to frequent changes in parliament.

Except for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Macedonia, the parliaments of other Central and Eastern European countries were dissolved more or less early. The existence and normal operation of the government, as an institution negotiated between the President and the Parliament and responsible for implementing domestic and foreign policies to the Parliament, depends not only on the trust of the Parliament and the support of the President, but also on its internal unity and the people's support for its policies. Therefore, not only the change of parliament will inevitably lead to the change of government, but also the change of parliament, the president's struggle for executive power, internal disputes within the government, and even people's dissatisfaction with the authorities' policies, which have greatly affected the stability of the governments of Central and Eastern European countries, making the government change frequently and the political situation turbulent.

Fourth, it is difficult for the judiciary to be independent. In Albania, Bulgaria and other countries, the judicial power and the independence of the judiciary are still not guaranteed and are in danger of being eroded by the president or the government. In the middle and early 1990s, when the Albanian Democratic Party was in power, President sali berisha, as the leader of the High Judicial Committee, strengthened the Democratic Party's infiltration into the judiciary and squeezed out political opponents by virtue of his influence on the appointment, removal and punishment of judges and prosecutors. As soon as the Bulgarian ivan kostov government 1997 came to power, it tried to modify the judicial procedure and control the judicial power.

Fifth, there are many contradictions between legislation and administration. Because the checks and balances between the legislature and the executive are not fully integrated in real political life, it is more because of the opposition between parties and differences in policy propositions. Except for the harmonious relationship between parliaments, presidents and governments in Hungary and Slovenia, there are contradictions and struggles among parliaments, presidents and governments in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe in different degrees and in different ways.

Second, political transition is both conflict and peace. The political transformation of a single country is accompanied by fierce conflicts. 1In just over ten days at the end of 989, Romania staged a violent seizure of power. The demonstration developed into an armed conflict, the army defected, the marchers surrounded the presidential palace, occupied the Romanian communist party Central Committee and government buildings, television stations and radio stations, arrested nicolae ceausescu and his wife who fled hastily, announced the establishment of the National Salvation Front Committee, took over all the powers of the State Council and the government, and killed ceausescu and his wife.

In Yugoslavia, with the split of the Socialist Federation and the Republic, the region was plunged into a protracted war. 199 1 In June, the Federal Government of Yugoslavia refused to recognize the independence of Slovenia and Croatia, so the Yugoslav People's Army clashed with the local defense forces of Slovenia and Croatia, and the Serbian armed forces supporting Croatia confronted the Croatian National Guard, and the war broke out suddenly. After the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the intervention of western countries and Yugoslavia, the war between Bosnians, Croats and Serbs intensified. It was not until the end of 1995 that the Bosnia and Herzegovina Peace Agreement was signed, and the war that lasted for more than three years was over. 1In February 1998, Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, went to war again, the conflict escalated, and the relationship between Yugoslavia and Albania deteriorated sharply. NATO, led by the United States, actively intervened and bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days from the end of March to the beginning of June. In February, 20001,Macedonia signed a border agreement with Yugoslavia, which demarcated most of the border lines, causing dissatisfaction among Kosovo Albanian extremists. The border area between Macedonia and South Kosovo is filled with smoke, and Macedonia, the only country in the former Yugoslavia that gained independence by peaceful means, has not escaped the fate of war.

In addition, the political transition in other Central and Eastern European countries is peaceful, with different parties completing the power transfer in a peaceful way, and the breakup between the Czech Republic and Slovakia also adopts the way of peaceful negotiation. 1990- 199 1 years, the Czech Republic and Slovakia debated on the issue of state system, and many negotiations failed to reach an agreement.

1After the general election in June 1992, the Civic Democratic Party and the Slovak Democratic Movement, the two ruling parties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, reached a dissolution agreement. On 2 July, the Transitional Federal Government was established. On July 3rd, the presidential election, vaclav havel's re-election failed, leaving the presidency vacant. On July 17, the Slovak National Assembly adopted the Slovak Constitution. 10 year10.8, the federal parliament passed the law on authority. 165438+1On October 25th, the Federal Parliament passed the Law on the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia Federation, confirming that the Federation would be dissolved automatically on February 25th. 1 1 On February 16, the Czech National Assembly adopted the Constitution of the Czech Republic. 1 99365438+1October1,the Czech Republic and Slovakia broke up peacefully and became independent countries.

Third, political transition is both rapid and long-term. Although it is exaggerated to describe the political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries by changing rivers and mountains overnight, from the institutional level, the political transformation of Central and Eastern Europe is undoubtedly rapid. Janos Kornai, a Hungarian economist, said: "From the perspective of the whole world, the transition from the former capitalist form to the mature capitalism has gone through several centuries. Some people use ruthless violence to describe the realization form of establishing the first socialist system-the typical Stalin system. However, this transition lasted about 65,438+05 years. Now, less than 65,438+00 years have passed since we returned to capitalism. After the velvet revolution without bloodshed and violence, most of the fastest growing Eastern European countries-Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland-have undergone transformation. " [2] This is exactly the case. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Central and Eastern European countries reformed the * * * production party through political pluralism and multi-party system, especially lost their ruling position, which fundamentally changed their class nature. By the middle and late 1990s, with the peaceful transfer of power from the left-wing parties in Poland and Hungary to the right-wing parties that won the elections, most Central and Eastern European countries gradually realized the situation that several major political parties came to power alternately through regular parliamentary elections, and the multi-party system and parliamentary system were established and coordinated, and the political transition was completed.

First of all, several important political parties or groups have been formed in the national political arena. With the advancement of political transformation, the election threshold has played a role, and political parties have gradually found their own social foundation, defined their own positioning, and formed several major types of political parties, such as social democratic party, liberal party, peasant party, regional and ethnic party, religious party, and ecological party. With a few exceptions, such as the Bulgarian Simeon II National Movement, the main political parties in power in Central and Eastern European countries in the past or now are mostly the left-wing Social Democratic Party and the right-wing Liberal Party, and the situation of political parties has improved, and they have entered the parliament one after another.

Second, parliamentary elections are held regularly and smoothly. Under the multi-party system and parliamentary system, parliamentary election is the most important means to realize the power transformation of political parties. Since the mid-to-late 1990s, parliamentary elections in various countries have been held regularly according to the time limit stipulated by the Constitution. Moreover, since the general election in Yugoslavia in 2000, most of the national elections have progressed smoothly, the power transfer between political parties has been smooth and orderly, the multi-party system and parliamentary system have operated normally, and no large-scale social unrest has occurred.

Third, different political parties or groups take turns to govern. With the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central and Eastern European countries have realized the rotation of different political parties or groups.

However, from the conceptual level, the political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries is a long-term process. The establishment and consolidation of the system can often be achieved through several elections and the power rotation of political parties, but it takes longer to form identity and act on the moral and ethical concepts of the new system. At present, most people in Central and Eastern European countries basically agree with the multi-party system and parliamentary system, and think that this system can solve the problems facing their own countries. However, at some time when the system is not performing well, they may also doubt the ability of the existing system to cope with the crisis. It is still a complicated task for Central and Eastern European countries to continuously consolidate western democratic ideas in the process of continuing to operate their systems in the future. In a sense, only when this concept is formed can the new system gain a solid foundation and the political transition be completely ended.

Fourth, political transformation is both synchronous and different. The political transition in Central and Eastern European countries occurred almost simultaneously in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since the labor unrest in Poland in the spring of 1988, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party announced the multi-party system, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, Romania violently seized power, the Bulgarian Socialist Production Party and the Yugoslav Producers' Union disintegrated. Until1March 1992, when the Albanian Democratic Party came to power, Central and Eastern European countries successively gave up the leading position of the * * * production party and

However, in the subsequent development, the differences between Central European countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia) and Balkan countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) became increasingly obvious. First of all, judging from the process of political transformation, Central European countries quickly overcame the uncertainty and instability at the beginning of the transformation, realized the peaceful transfer of power between political parties through normal general elections, and established a western-style multi-party system and parliamentary system; Balkan countries, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and other countries, are obsessed with ethnic disputes and wars, and their political transformation started late, and the multi-party system, parliamentary system and even political situation are still not stable enough.

Secondly, judging from the process of joining the European Union [3], Central European countries have become the first choice for NATO and the European Union because of their faster transformation speed than Balkan countries and closer to the western system than the latter. 1in March, 1999, the NATO Madrid meeting decided to accept Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as members. In May 2004, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU. In June 2007, Slovenia became a member of the euro zone. In the same year, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the Schengen Agreement in June+February 5438, and Slovakia is expected to start using the euro in June 5438 +2009 10. It was not until June 5, 2007 to1October 5, 2007 that the EU signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Montenegro. In April 2008, the Bucharest NATO meeting decided to invite Croatia and Albania to join the Treaty, and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the "enhanced dialogue mechanism". In April and June of the same year, the EU successively signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July, in order to urge Serbia to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on the issue of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Bosnian Serbs, the EU decided to postpone the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement signed with Serbia. It can be seen that the accession process of these countries has just begun in stumbling.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) political transformation is both endogenous and exogenous. The political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries is fundamentally due to the internal factors of these countries, because the ruling production parties in various countries have not combined the basic principles of Marxism with their national conditions and the trend of the times, and explored a development path that meets the requirements of the times and their own reality. Instead, it made an absolute copy of the Soviet model formed under specific historical conditions, which hindered the development of productive forces and social progress and widened the gap with capitalist countries.

Economically, Central and Eastern European countries copied the Soviet economic model characterized by highly centralized mandatory planning system and giving priority to the development of heavy industry, which played a positive role in healing the wounds of war, restoring the national economy and laying a socialist economic foundation. However, the model adopted by the Soviet Union, which is vast in territory, rich in resources, rich in material and human resources, surrounded by capitalism and must rapidly strengthen its national strength, is obviously difficult to adapt to Central and Eastern Europe, which is either naturally poor in resources or short of labor force and is in a relatively peaceful period. With the passage of time, this inadaptability has become more and more prominent, which has hindered the development of productive forces and the improvement of people's lives, and finally pushed Central and Eastern European countries to the brink of collapse. Politically, Central and Eastern European countries suffered from it almost from the highly centralized Soviet political model. The purge of the production party in various countries has created a large number of unjust, false and misjudged cases, damaged the party's strength and prestige, undermined socialist democracy and legal system, and affected the reputation of socialism. Copying the highly centralized model has its own defects and deviates from the reality in Central and Eastern Europe. Compared with the Soviet Union, although most Central and Eastern European countries "did not actually practice parliamentary democracy for a long time" before World War II, "their democratic systems (freedom of the press, freedom of association, judicial independence, etc.). ) The general civilization level of relations with the people is much higher than that of the Soviet Union; The connection with western culture is also closer. " [4] This makes it more difficult for people in Central and Eastern European countries to adapt to centralization of authority and the resulting personal arbitrariness and cult.

Faced with the harm of the Soviet model, most Central and Eastern European countries did not sit still. The socialist autonomy system of Yugoslavia, the Polish road of Vadislav GoMulka, the Hungarian model of Cadal Janos, the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia and the new economic system reform of Bulgaria are all being explored and tried, but these reforms either give up halfway or go astray.

What is more harmful is that the Soviet model is not only a foreign model in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II, but also a tool for the Soviet Union to control Central and Eastern Europe and strengthen its own strength against the United States. During the socialist period of more than 40 years, the Central and Eastern European countries were all under the control of the big party, big country and hegemonism of the Soviet Union, and the national interests had to be subordinated to the nominal "interests of the socialist family", but in fact they were the interests of the Soviet Union, and even the national sovereignty could not be guaranteed. Out of dissatisfaction with this inequality, Central and Eastern European countries equate the * * * production party and socialism with Soviet control, completely deny the Soviet-style socialist system and embark on the road of political transition in order to get rid of Soviet control.

On the other hand, the political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries takes place in the wave of economic globalization and regional integration, and the guiding role of external factors in political transformation cannot be underestimated. The assistance of international organizations such as NATO and the European Union has played a certain role in promoting the political transition. The urgent desire of Central and Eastern European countries to return to Europe makes the standards put forward by western organizations, especially the European Union, more normative and instructive for the transition. NATO's "Partnership for Peace" plan stipulates that partner countries should not only cooperate with NATO in defense planning, arms control, military operations, opening military facilities to NATO, but also ensure democratic control over national defense forces, carry out democratic reforms, overcome the influence of the Warsaw Pact, capitalist ideology and Soviet military doctrine, and transform their troops according to NATO standards, which externally strengthens the internal reforms of Central and Eastern European countries wishing to join NATO. The role of the EU in the political transition of Central and Eastern European countries is even more obvious, because NATO is only a security organization after all, and it does not belong to Europe. "In the eyes of many leaders of Central and Eastern European countries, its role is different from that of the EU. If NATO is the protector, then what is protected is the EU's Europe "[5]. Therefore, the EU's requirements will promote the convergence of political systems in Central and Eastern European countries with the West. From the Farr Plan, the agreement of associated countries to the accession criteria, from the annual evaluation report of candidate countries to the accession negotiations, Central and Eastern Europe, which strives to be close to the EU, has gradually established a Western-style political system due to the aid of the EU and the constraints of accession conditions. No wonder some western scholars say: "The clear prospects of EU members, as well as EU members themselves, are more likely to promote the political and economic development of these countries than any form of foreign aid." [6] six. Political transformation has paid a price and made progress. The political transformation of Central and Eastern European countries has paid a certain social price. These countries have experienced political turmoil, economic recession and rampant corruption to varying degrees. First of all, the political transformation originated from the great turmoil in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the subsequent transition, not only wars broke out in the former Yugoslavia for many times due to ethnic conflicts, but also deadly partisan struggles, contradictory legislative and administrative relations, and even government policy mistakes triggered protests and demonstrations, and sometimes even escalated into large-scale armed riots. Secondly, the fierce partisan struggle has distracted all parties from making feasible economic plans and solving severe economic problems. The differences between the parliament, the president and the government have weakened the ability of the administrative organs to implement economic policies and overcome economic crises. Frequent government changes and even political turmoil directly endanger the smooth implementation of the economic transition plan and the normal operation of the national economy, which makes the economy get into trouble again and again. Thirdly, in the process of political transformation, rampant corruption, dereliction of duty of leaders, government crisis and even the stepping down of the ruling party are all related to corruption scandals to some extent. At present, corruption is still a serious social and political problem in Central and Eastern European countries.

However, as far as the goal of political transformation is concerned, the transformation of Central and Eastern European countries has made remarkable progress. The multi-party system and parliamentary system in most countries operate normally and are accepted by western society. Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria joined NATO and the European Union, and Croatia and Albania also received invitations from NATO. It is expected that Croatia will complete the technical negotiation of accession before the end of 2009 and in 2065-438+00. Although the development of some Balkan countries lags behind, the road of western-style political system is irreversible, and the process of joining the EU has been started one after another. Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina joined NATO's "Partnership for Peace" plan, Bosnia-Herzegovina joined NATO's "enhanced dialogue mechanism", Serbia signed a security agreement with NATO, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina signed a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, and Macedonia was only one step away from the EU candidate status.