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Examines the internationalization of crime and corruption in post‐communist states and its serious implications for both established democracies and democratizing countries. The main hypothesis is that the post‐communist regimes have experienced legitimacy problems because of popular perceptions that the new putatively democratizing systems are often too tolerant of the new criminality, and in some cases directly involved with benefiting from it. The section of the chapter provides a brief overview of the crime situation in the region, highlighting changes in the incidence of crime. The second and third parts of the chapter are concerned with the rise of crime in terms of the interplay of domestic and international/transnational factors. In the fourth section, the implications of the rise of crime for the whole democratization and transition project are assessed. The fifth section provides an overview of international responses to crime in Central Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union states. The conclusions to the chapter locate the criminalization issue in the broader context of the problems besetting post‐communist transition and democratic consolidation.

Addresses issues concerning attitudes towards the West, democracy, and the market. The first one is the extent of Western involvement and influence in the transformation as against internal and domestic forces. The second is the extent to which elite views of the West—and their commitment to transition—have persisted in the face of the transition experience itself, including the success or failure of the market and the integration of the post‐communist state in Western economic and military structures. The chapter concentrates on the stance taken by mass publics of Eastern Europe, and, in particular, on their attitudes towards key aspects of the transition and the ways in which these are linked with their views of Western involvement. The chapter advances three propositions: (1) democratization as an exit from communism made it highly likely that the economic correlate would be the market rather than state economic control; and vice versa; (2) the geographical location of the communist bloc and the nature of its political, strategic, and economic rivalries made it likely that this exit would entail a shift to the West; (3) those most in favour of transition and most opposed to the communist order were more likely to wish to be become part of the West and its democratic and market structures. The chapter addresses those arguments by testing six hypotheses using data of national probability samples of the populations of Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

The concluding chapter identifies a set of variables responsible for the enormous impact of external factors on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe: (1) the historical legacy, (2) the liberal‐democratic ideological paradigm, and (3) the forces of globalization. Next, it conceptualizes the interplay of external and internal factors impinging upon democracy and assesses positive and negative kinds of external impacts on democracy. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of the conscious Western effort to craft or engineer democracy in Eastern Europe. Despite inconsistent signals and the lack of a broader strategic design for Europe, the West has succeeded in creating an environment conducive to democratic reform in the post‐communist arena. Linking membership of western institutions to democracy and other reforms has been a characteristic feature of this crafting effort.

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of church-state relations in the countries in the original European Union (EU). It then sets out the purpose of the book, which is to investigate church-state relations in the enlarged EU resulting from the acceptance of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Slovenia in 2004, and of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. The chapter addresses important questions such as: What are the broad patterns of church-state relations in these countries? How did these models grow historically, how were they reshaped by communist policies, and how have they evolved in the pre-accession stage? How significantly different are these models from church-state relations in established Western democracies? Will the new EU members' ability to consolidate democracy be hampered by their church-state relations? The religious make-up of these post-communist EU member states is also described.

This chapter compares the ten post-communist members of the EU in terms of the dimensions detailed in the preceding chapters. To make the comparison intelligible, those dimensions are reorganized as follows: (1) the legislative framework pertaining to religion and religious life; (2) the powers and responsibilities assumed by the governmental agencies in charge of religious affairs; (3) the ease with which religious denominations gained official recognition from the state, and the differences among churches imposed upon by the authorities, the different tiers at which denominations could register, and the advantages resulting from such registration; and (4) the manner in which religious instruction was delivered in public schools. The aim is to understand more fully the ways in which church and state, religious and political actors have come together in these countries after the collapse of the communist regime, during their transition to democracy, and during the first years after they joined the EU. The chapter then identifies the areas of church-state relations that fall short of the “twin toleration” principle, with a view to identifying the cases where reforms are needed and to bring these countries closer to democratic standards.

The post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe have embraced, almost without reservation, the power of constitutional courts to strike down legislation under constitutional charters of rights. While there have been occasional public expressions of dissatisfaction with this or that major decision, the legitimacy of the constitutional tribunals to replace the legislators' understanding of constitutional rights with its own has gone virtually unchallenged. There are two plausible reasons for this uncritical acceptance of robust, activist, rights-based judicial review in the countries undergoing transition from communist to democratic rule. First, the general acceptance tracks the comparatively high social prestige of constitutional courts in these societies as a whole. The second reason has less to do with general public opinion than with the participants in constitutional discourse (constitutional scholars and judges) themselves. This chapter discusses the model of constitutional review in post-communist states, record of constitutional courts in the field of rights, and judicial activism of rights-based judicial review.

This chapter examines the issues and challenges still facing churches and religious associations in Eastern and Central Europe more than two decades after the overthrow of communist rule, and it looks at the lessons learned in the intervening period for the protection of religious freedom in emerging democracies. While some problems were inherited from the communist era and are common throughout the region, others have emerged under the impact of post-communist democratisation and pluralisation, and are specific to particular countries. The creation of stable institutions, backed by the rule of law and freedom of speech, gave a great boost to religious rights in this era. But the quest remains for an appropriate and dependable balance between the sacred and secular spheres, and between the often competing interests of state and individual, as illustrated by the chapter's comparative case studies in areas from church property rights and fiscal privileges to education and abortion.

Since the end of the cold war, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been confronted with four major milestones that necessitated the cardinal transformation of their national security and defence policies: the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO membership, EU accession, and the resurgence of Russia under Putin. This chapter analyses the countries’ responses to these changes and challenges, tracing and explaining the evolution of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national strategies, military doctrines, and capabilities since 1989. It both provides an analytical overview of how the countries collectively have adjusted to the new regional and international security order, as well as compares the similarities and differences in their security outlooks, postures, and actions, in order to shed light on the degree of convergence and divergence among these three post-communist states.