Fall of Communism

             differences. Preuss notes that when the constitutional state gained .
             favor in North America, it was founded on the principle of the unitary .
             state; it was not designed to address the lack of national identity .
             which is found throughout Europe - and which is counter to the.
             concept of the constitutional state (48). "Measured in terms of .
             socioeconomic modernization," writes Helga A. Welsh, "Central and.
             Eastern European countries had reached a level that was considered .
             conducive to the emergence of pluralistic policies" (19). It seemed .
             that the sole reason the downfall of communism, as it were, took so .
             long was the veto power of the Soviet Union. According to theories of .
             modernization, the higher the levels of socioeconomic achievement, the .
             greater the pressure for open competition and, ultimately, democracy. .
             As such, the nations in Eastern and Central Europe were seen as .
             "anomalies in socioeconomically highly-developed countries where .
             particularly intellectual power resources have become widespread" .
             (Welsh 19). Due to their longtime adherence to communist policies, .
             these nations faced great difficulty in making the transition to a .
             pluralist system as well as a market economy. According to Preuss, .
             these problems were threefold: The genuine economic devastations .
             wrought by the communist regimes, the transformation of the social and .
             economic classes of the command economy into the social and economic .
             classes of a capitalist economy and, finally, the creation of a .
             constitutional structure for political entities that lack the .
             undisputed integrity of a nation state (48).
             With such problems as these to contend with in re-engineering .
             their entire economic and political systems, the people of East .
             Germany seemed to be in a particularly enviable position. .
             Economically, they were poised to unite with one of the richest .
             countries, having one of the strongest economies, in the entire world.