What Judgement Should Be Made about the Success of Political and Economic Transition in Central and Eastern Europe?

There has been of course many changes since 1989. To understand this we should analyze how the situation before the revolution. Before 1989 there was no political freedom. There were elections, but there was only one candidate, down from the city councils up to the MPs, all of them were nominated by an almighty party. The most powerful man was not president, neither Prime minister, but the leader of the party. He was also responsible to the leader of the party in USSR. There was no freedom of religion; every priest had to be issued a special admission to work as one. …