From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Post-Communism)
Jump to: navigation, search



The policies of most communist parties in both Eastern and Western Europe had been governed by the example of the Soviet Union. In most of the countries in Eastern Europe, following the fall of communist-led governments in 1989, the communist parties split in two factions: a reformist Social Democratic party and a new, less reform-oriented Communist Party. The newly created Social Democratic parties were generally larger and more powerful than the remaining communist parties; only in Russia, Moldova, and the Czech Republic did the Communist Party remain a significant force.

The ex-communist social democrats gained increasing popularity when the transition to capitalism began to cause economic problems such as poverty and unemployment[citation needed]. Nearly all of them won national elections in their respective countries at least once in the past 15 years.





Average standards of living registered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s in many parts of the former Comecon—most notably in the former Soviet Union—and began to rise again only toward the end of the decade. Some populations are still poorer today than they were in 1989 (e.g., Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, and Serbia). Others have bounced back considerably beyond that threshold however (e.g., Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic), and some, such as Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, underwent an economic boom (see Baltic Tiger), although all have suffered from the 2009 recession.

Today, most post-communist countries in Europe are generally seen to have mixed economies, although it is often argued[by whom?] that some (such as Romania, Slovakia and Estonia, with their flat tax rates) are actually more capitalist than Western Europe.


See also[edit]



External links[edit]